Final round suits Pooley

Bryce Alderton

NEWPORT BEACH -- Don Pooley, who started the third round 10 shots

behind the Toshiba Senior Classic’s newest champion, Mark Johnson,

moved into a tie for fourth at 8-under-par (70-70-65 - 205) after

play concluded Sunday at Newport Beach Country Club.

Pooley, who tied for 10th in this tournament in 2002, finished

4-under 32 on the back nine Sunday after shooting 70 in the second

round.

“[Saturday] I hit so well and didn’t get anything out of it,” said

Pooley, who lives in Phoenix but has played Newport Beach Country

Club about 20 times.

He is fairly good friends with Jerry Anderson, the club’s general

manager.

“I could have been really low. I figured out how to putt better,”

said Pooley, who birdied four of his final five holes in the final

round.

Pooley, tied for 28th after the second round, spent part of

Saturday night in front of a mirror analyzing his putting stroke.

Cross winds on several holes Sunday wreaked havoc on shots, Pooley

said.

“It was really windy and the wind came in different directions,”

Pooley said. “Some of the easy holes, like 10, the doglegs had wind.

I had to have a different game plan with each hole and the wind.”

Then the greens presented challenges.

“These poa annua greens are tough to putt,” Pooley said.

Laguna Beach resident Rick Talt, walking alongside the throng

following the final threesome Sunday, was one of many pulling for

Johnson.

Talt met Johnson when the two played in the 1994 U.S. Amateur

championship at the TPC Sawgrass course in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.

The two then played in the same grouping in the second round of the

first stage of the Champions Tour’s national qualifying tournament

last year.

Talt, who played in the 1997 Toshiba Senior Classic after

advancing through the Monday qualifier, said the course suited

Johnson and expected him to win.

“He keeps his composure. He doesn’t get too high or too low,” said

Talt, a Laguna Beach resident.

Johnson’s most animated moment came after he holed a 91-yard wedge

shot for eagle on the par-5 18th hole for the tournament

championship. He raised his arms, leaned back and grinned as he

embraced caddie Doug Matteson.

The two teamed for 30 events, 20 on mini-tours.

It’s safe to say the final threesome of Johnson, Tom Jenkins and

Keith Fergus drew the largest gallery Sunday.

But one volunteer said the crowds swelled to numbers rarely seen.

“This is one of the largest I’ve seen, and I’ve been doing this

eight years,” said Ross Willour, a marshal standing near the eighth

green.

Willour said the group that included Johnson drew 20 to 30 fans

Saturday, but the number peaked to an estimated 150 spectators

Sunday.

“He’s sort of a folk legend,” Willour said of Johnson.

Johnson became the fourth golfer to secure his first Champions

Tour victory by winning the Toshiba Senior Classic. Gary McCord

(1999), Jose Maria Canizares (2001) and Rodger Davis (2003) are the

other winners.

Johnson holed out for a birdie 2 from the bunker on the par-3 17th

Friday while chipping in for birdie on the par-3 13th Saturday.

* Keith Fergus tallied his best finish on the Champions Tour with

a tie for second at the Toshiba. He also earned $132,000, the largest

paycheck of his pro career.

* John Bland (70-66-69 -- 205) equaled his best finish in the

Toshiba with a tie for fourth. Bland shot 204 and tied for fourth in

2001.

* Allen Doyle, the 2000 Toshiba champion, carded his second

straight 70 and finished tied for eighth at 6-under (67-70-70 --

207).

Doyle entered the tournament with 16 of 17 rounds in the 60s at

Newport Beach Country Club.

* McCord gave new meaning to the phrase, “When you gotta go, you

gotta go.”

McCord, playing with Fuzzy Zoeller and Dana Quigley in Sunday’s

final round, walked off the 12th green, heading to the restroom.

This is nothing out of the ordinary except that McCord hadn’t

finished the hole.

The 1999 Toshiba champion still had a three-foot putt for par.

Zoeller sank his par putt and gestured as if to pick up McCord’s

ball mark before he returned to the green.

McCord returned and waved to a mild applause.

He then sank the putt.

Goes to show that one doesn’t need added pressure to those

three-footers.

* Newport Beach Country Club head professional Paul Hahn concluded

his second Toshiba appearance with his best round in three days with

a 2-over 73 Sunday.

Hahn (76-78-73 -- 227), who finished 14-over, tallied four birdies

to go with four bogeys and one double bogey in equaling his best

finish in six tournament rounds.

The 51-year-old Hahn, who plays in the Jones Cup each summer, shot

73 in the opening round last year en route to a 10-over 223.