Toshiba time for Newport

Bryce Alderton

The 11th Toshiba Senior Classic tees off today at Newport Beach

Country Club with the threat of rain in the air and 78 golfers aiming

for the top prize.

Newport Beach Country Club head golf professional Paul Hahn,

making his second straight tournament appearance, John Harris and Pat

McGowan get things started at 8:10 this morning and 75 PGA Champions

Tour golfers, all 50 and older, will follow.

Players stressed the importance of keeping the ball in the fairway

and maneuvering safely on sometimes tricky greens as keys to victory

this week, but a closer look revealed just what holes could factor

into who will hold the trophy.

Several golfers were asked which holes pose the most problems on

the par-71 course that measures 6,584 yards.

The latter half of the front nine generated the most responses.

“Eight is a long hole [the par-3 measures 203 yards from the

championship tees], you have to hit the right club,” said John Bland,

who tied for ninth at last year’s Toshiba. “Nine [a par-4 dogleg

right into the wind] is a tough driving hole that’s narrow with trees

on the right. If you go in the rough, seldom do you get it on the

green.”

The eighth was the most difficult hole during the 2003 tournament,

yielding the fewest birdies. The ninth garnered the same distinction

in 1998.

The 418-yard par-4 sixth rendered the most double bogeys of any

front-nine hole in the 2003 Toshiba.

Then there is the green on the par-4 seventh hole, which slopes

severely from back to front.

“That green has all sorts of trouble,” Rodger Davis, the 2003

Toshiba champion, said. “If you get through 5-9, you will do well in

the tournament.

D.A. Weibring, who finished tied for sixth in last year’s Toshiba,

said holes 5, 6 and 8 were the toughest on the front side followed by

Nos. 14, 16 and 17 on the back nine.

“Greens can get tricky,” Weibring said. “Low scoring depends on

how challenging the weather gets. If there are softer greens, the

scores will go down.”

A 70% chance of showers is forecasted for both today and Saturday,

according to the web site, weather.com.

Golfers contended with warm, dry and windy conditions earlier in

the week, but damp and overcast skies prevailed most of Thursday

during the second of the two-day Classic Pro-Am.

Defending champion Tom Purtzer joins former Masters champions

Fuzzy Zoeller and Ben Crenshaw in this morning’s 10:22 grouping while

Hale Irwin, the Champions Tour’s leader in victories (42), Jim Thorpe

and Larry Nelson are scheduled to tee off at 10:55.

Purtzer tied the Champions Tour’s 18-hole scoring record with an

11-under 60 in the first round last year, tallying nine birdies and

an eagle.

The championship features 25 of the top 30 players from the

Champions Tour’s 2004 money list including Irwin (2), Gil Morgan (4),

Bruce Fleisher (5), Nelson (6) Mark McNulty (7) Weibring (8), Thorpe

(9) and Allen Doyle (10), the 2000 Toshiba champion.

Irwin has won twice in five events this year and joins Des Smyth,

last week’s winner at the SBC Classic, and Dana Quigley, who claimed

the season-opening MasterCard Championship in the field.

Quigley ranks second to Irwin in the season-long Charles Schwab

Cup points race, designed to identify the Champions Tour’s top

player. Toshiba will mark Quigley’s 253rd straight event overall,

dating to the start of the 1998 season.

Major championship winners Raymond Floyd and Curtis Strange are

also entered into the 78-player field, with the winner slated to

receive $247,500.