Golf for the heart

Susan Goldberg has more than one reason to be glad the Toshiba Classic this year is benefiting the Heart and Vascular Institute at Hoag Hospital.

Goldberg, the institute’s vice president, gets patients every year who come straight to the hospital from the golf course.

She can’t recall getting any from the Toshiba Classic itself, but for a large demographic of golfers — men aged 50 to 65 — heart problems are far from a rarity.

“It’s not a strenuous sport, but people do a lot of walking,” Goldberg said. “Sometimes people play golf in the heat. Sometimes golf isn’t relaxing for people, so with all those factors combined with someone who has a history of heart disease, that can be a powder keg waiting to blow up.”

Thanks to the Toshiba Classic, Hoag is better equipped than ever to deal with those problems. All the proceeds the hospital has gotten from the tournament since 2006 have gone to the Heart and Vascular Institute, which offers surgery, therapy, rehabilitation, acute heart attack treatment and more.

The institute, spread over a number of buildings on the Hoag campus, has a goal of erecting a single structure to hold all heart-related services. That goal is a ways off, Goldberg said, but the funds from the golf tournament bring it closer.

“The commitment from the community through the Toshiba Classic has been extraordinary,” she said.

All the money Hoag received from the Toshiba Classic from 2001 to 2005 went to the construction of the Sue and Bill Gross Women’s Pavilion, according to Ron Guziak, the executive director of the Hoag Hospital Foundation. The tournament raised about $5 million for the pavilion, a full tenth of the amount the hospital set out to raise in its capital campaign.

Since then, all the Hoag proceeds have gone to the Heart and Vascular Institute.

In terms of benefiting Hoag, the Toshiba Classic has a streak going: Each of the last eight years, the tournament has raised more than $1 million, with last year’s total of $1.3 million — an all-time record.

Jeff Purser, the tournament’s executive director, said he didn’t expect to surpass that amount this year, since the last event had a number of one-time donors, but he did expect to reach seven digits again.

“We’re pretty confident we’ll do over $1 million if the weather holds,” said Purser, who added that the organizers would likely have an approximate total Sunday.

MICHAEL MILLER may be reached at (714) 966-4617 or at michael.miller@latimes.com.