Going way back

For years and years, when Jake Rohrer and the late Gene Baum would

travel to the PGA Tour National Qualifying Tournament to recruit

players for their Crosby Southern Pro-Am (later the Newport Classic

Pro-Am), they felt privileged to sit right next to the player

registration table and hand out invitations.

“We were really only one or two tournaments allowed to recruit

players at Q School,” said Rohrer, now the Toshiba Senior Classic

Co-Chairman and tournament volunteer through Hoag Hospital’s 552

Club, a fund-raising group which operated the Newport Classic Pro-Am

before dropping that tournament and taking over the PGA Champions

Tour event at Newport Beach Country Club.

Wherever Rohrer and Baum would travel to attend Q School, they’d

always meet up with David Eger, the former PGA Tour rules official in

charge of Q School.

“When Gene and I did recruit for the Newport Classic, we had to

get Dave’s blessing,” Rohrer said. “We had that relationship for

quite a period of time.”

Next week in the Toshiba Senior Classic, the roles will be

reversed with Rohrer taking care of Eger, a surprise winner Sunday at

Champions Tour event in Mexico City, where he rallied with a

final-round 65 to overtake Bruce Lietzke and claim his first

professional victory.

“I’m looking forward to seeing him,” Rohrer said. “It’s been

several years since we’ve seen each other. He was on last year’s

Senior Tour, or this year’s Champions Tour, but he wasn’t quite 50

(during last year’s Toshiba Classic).”

Ranked as one of the finest amateurs in the United States for the

last 14 years, Eger won the 1988 U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship and

played on three U.S. Walker Cup teams. He served two stints as a

member of the PGA Tour staff and also served as the Senior Director

of Rules and Competition for the United States Golf Association from

1992-1995.

“It will be fun to see him and catch up a little bit and thank him

for all those years he helped us,” Rohrer said. “And now we’re

helping him a little.”

When Eger claimed the $300,000 first-place prize last week at the

MasterCard Classic, it represented more money than he had won

previously in his PGA Tour and Champions Tour career combined. Prior

to last week, Eger had earned $252,161 in his career on the two

tours.

“I’m very happy for David,” said noted golf instructor David

Leadbetter, who worked with Eger a lot in the off-season. “He was a

fine amateur player for years, but to beat a good field like he did

in Mexico, well that’s quite a feather in his cap.”

*

Looking for a 2003 Toshiba Classic champion? How about defending

champion Hale Irwin?

Irwin continues to amaze. His first 12 rounds this year have all

been under-par and his last two starts have been runner-up efforts.

He now has 88 top-three finishes in 187 career starts. Incredible.

*

Isao Aoki made it official. He’s not coming this year because of a

scheduling conflict, which means the Toshiba Senior Classic will

include 30 of the top 31 from last year’s money list. Aoki was No. 31

on last year’s money list. The top 31 earn fully exempt status the

following year on the tour.

That means for three straight years, the event has drawn 30 of the

top 31 players from the prior year’s money list, a feat that even

some major championships were unable to accomplish.

Even during years when the Toshiba Classic was the only event on

the West Coast, it still attracted a strong field -- no doubt also

because of the hefty purse (this year it’s $1.55 million) and

senior-friendly golf course at Newport Beach (6,584 yards).

*

Fifty years ago, Ben Hogan completed one of golf’s greatest feats

when he became the first to win three professional majors in the same

season: the 1953 Masters, the U.S. Open and the British Open. To

celebrate this accomplishment and his exceptional career, the World

Golf Hall of Fame will unveil Ben Hogan’s Historic Season: 1953--A

Golden Anniversary Tribute on March 25.

The exhibit will feature a generous amount of photographs and

memorabilia from 1953, when he won five of the six four-round

tournaments he entered that year -- the three majors, plus the

Colonial and the Pan-American. Other career moments will be featured

in the exhibit, including his near-death car accident and the

formation of his golf equipment company, The Ben Hogan Company. The

exhibit will be located at the World Golf Hall of Fame in St.

Augustine, Fla.

*

In other player news, Don Pooley has withdrawn from the

tournament. Pooley, who had recent shoulder surgery, has not played

in a single event this year.

*

On Sunday at 5 p.m., Pelican Hill Golf Club will be exclusively

featured on a Fox Sports West broadcast of the new Golf Resorts

International with David Camp. Golf Resorts International is a

13-part series showcasing some of the world’s top golf resorts

including Pebble Beach and Pinehurst.

The 30-minute show will provide in-depth coverage of both of

Pelican Hill’s Tom Fazio-designed courses.

The show will feature interviews with General Manager Hans

Maissden, Fazio, Director of Instruction Glenn Deck and executive

chef Michael Dugan.

The program also specifically showcases the Four Seasons Newport

Beach and Fashion Island.