Toshiba Senior Classic: The King arrives

Richard Dunn

NEWPORT BEACH - The King hits golf balls every day and still enjoys

teeing it up, but these days maintaining concentrating for 18 holes is

the greatest challenge for 70-year-old legend Arnold Palmer.

Making his Toshiba Senior Classic debut, along with his first competitive

appearance in Orange County, Palmer, perhaps the most popular player in

golf history, arrived in town Thursday to an adoring crowd for his pro-am

round.

“I still enjoy competing, though it doesn’t appear that I do if my

(recent) scores are any indication,” Palmer said to a small media

gathering in the Newport Beach Country Club locker room. “I still have

fun, but it would be more fun if I could play a little better.

“I get tired easily. Not the kind of tired you think, it’s more a lack of

keeping a high level of concentration and interest up.”

Palmer reflected on last week at the LiquidGolf.com Invitational in

Sarasota, Fla., where he made a few birdies early in rounds, “then sort

of lost the thing,” and finished the tournament at 11-over-par.

“It’s just a lack of keeping my focus,” said Palmer, who lost his wife,

Winnie, to cancer on Nov. 30, and maintains a busy schedule away from the

links with his golf course design and development company.

“The key is to keep my concentration for 18 or 36 holes, but it’s

difficult. My mind seems to wander.”

Palmer, though, the King of Golf, is cheered and admired wherever he

goes, including Thursday when about 1,200 fans surrounded the first tee

for his grand entrance.

“I don’t know when he’ll finally decide to stop,” said Doc Giffin,

Palmer’s longtime administrative assistant. “People love to watch him

play, so he plays, even though it grinds on him because of his inability

to score better. But people keep saying, ‘Don’t quit,’ and that’s an

influence on him to keep him going.”

Palmer, who caused a pleasant frenzy in the Toshiba camp when he

committed to the event Feb. 9, is making a rare appearance on the Senior

PGA Tour.

The owner of 92 victories worldwide and eight major championships said he

plans to play a limited schedule in 2000, with The Home Depot

Invitational in Charlotte, N.C., May 5-7 as the only other non-Open event

on his senior tour calendar.

Palmer historically hasn’t played at Newport Beach, mainly because of the

date. In previous years, it was a week before the PGA Tour’s Bay Hill

Invitational, which Palmer hosts at his club in Orlando, Fla.

This year, the Toshiba Classic was moved up a week, and Palmer said

tournament officials “made me feel like I could help them if I came.”

Palmer also said he enjoys spending time at his home in the desert and

the close proximity -- a 20-minute airplane ride -- enticed him to come

to Newport Beach.

He added he’s never played the course at Newport Beach, “but I’ll try to

learn as much as I can (Thursday). I have a young lady caddying (Beth

Kaufman, Gary Player’s former caddie), and she’ll help me.”

This year, Palmer will also compete at his Bay Hill event, the Masters,

the PGA Championship, U.S. Senior Open and Senior PGA Championship.

“I don’t plan to play very many,” said Palmer, who has won four Masters

titles, two British Opens, one U.S. Open and one U.S. Amateur (1954),

which was the springboard to his professional fame.

In terms of the attention with fans, media interest and autograph

seekers, Palmer said he’s “used to it to some degree. I enjoy playing and

being around these guys.”

During the informal interview, Palmer interrupted to give fellow senior

tour player Butch Baird some ribbing about his “dark hair,” then teased

others, including J.C. Snead, as they walked by.

Last week alone, Palmer opened golf courses in Las Vegas, Naples, Fla.,

and Boca Raton, Fla. Another course was scheduled to open in Salt Lake

City, but bad weather postponed it.

As Palmer left the clubhouse, Toshiba tournament director Jeff Purser

thanked him for coming and said to ask if there’s anything he could do.

“All I want to do is play good,” Palmer said. “Can you fix that?”

Palmer, the biggest name ever to play in the Toshiba, ranks fourth on the

all-time PGA Tour victory list with 60 titles and was the first player in

tour history to reach the $1 million mark in official earnings.

The Senior PGA Tour was created in 1980 largely to keep legends like

Palmer active in competitive golf.

Named the Associated Press’ Athlete of the Decade for the 1960s, Palmer

in 1960 was named the Hickok Athlete of the Year and Sports Illustrated’s

Sportsman of the Year.

In 1960, Palmer helped usher in the practice of sports agents as his

worldwide popularity grew and dominance on the PGA Tour increased. That

year, Mike McCormick founded International Management Group with Palmer

as his first client and a sports revolution was born.