Adler so ready for the breakfast

If there’s such a thing as being overprepared Hank Adler wants to achieve that status whenever he moderates the interview for the annual Breakfast With a Champion, the event that serves as the kick-off for the Toshiba Classic.

Adler enjoys finding out every fact about the featured “champion” and he’ll read through books, a biography or watch previous interviews. Alder, for sure, has taken delight in studying up on Tuesday’s subject: John Daly. The 1991 PGA Championship winner will make his debut at the Toshiba Classic at Newport Beach Country Club, where Pro-Am will take place during the week before the three-day tournament takes place Oct. 7-9.

“I just finished his biography,” Adler said recently while sitting in his office at Chapman University, where he’s a business professor. “From reading it, you can understand why everyone loves the guy. He’s had some ups and downs.”

So just what will Adler ask the colorful Daly? What will they talk about?

“You’ll find out when I do,” Adler says with a smile. “Those things are free flow.”

Adler says he has a brother-in-law who played with Daly on the Web.com Tour, and was able to get more insight from some of those experiences.

“He is what he is,” Adler said of Daly. “He would give you the shirt off his back.”

For over the past decade, Adler has had fun with being the moderator for the Breakfast With A Champion event, interviewing golf legends Lee Trevino and Tom Kite among others, as well as the humorous and engaging Steve Elkington.

Adler is the chairman emeritus of the Toshiba Classic, a title he assumed after tireless work as the longtime tournament chairman.

There have been many highlights throughout the years at the Champions Tour event at Newport Beach Country Club. Adler has seen many exciting finishes and record crowds. Still, that first year with the tournament was very special.

“The biggest highlight was just being able to make the thing work the first year,” Adler said. “To be able to make that thing successful in year one and hire a guy [tournament director Jeff Purser] who is here 19 years later it doesn’t get any better than that.”

As Adler made the transition to chairman emeritus, he embraced his role as moderator of the breakfast event.

He said his first try at it came suddenly as he subbed in for someone who turned it down the night before the breakfast.

But he’s really enjoyed each interview.

“I have a list of questions that can go for five hours,” Adler said. “I’m not a skilled interviewer. I kind of just show up. I’m more relaxed now than that first year … I love it. That’s something I’ve really begun to look forward to enjoy.”

Ira Garbutt is the Toshiba Classic chairman now, and took over for Adler. Garbutt has admired Adler’s preparation for each interview at the breakfast.

“It’s absolutely phenomenal,” Garbutt said of Adler’s preparation. “He enjoys doing the research. You can tell that he’s really prepared and that he cares. He’s the perfect person to be doing that. He’s done it for so long and has such a solid history with great results. These are the legends of golf and he’s getting the community involved early on in the week.”