History of a Classic

Bryce Alderton

The Toshiba Senior Classic prides itself on attracting one of the

best fields of any PGA Champions Tour event year after year. And

players, in turn, almost always rave about everything from the course

at Newport Beach Country Club, to the way they are treated, to the

bevy of dinner options nearby.

The golf, however, never fails to live up to the hype. This

championship enters its 11th year, 10th at Newport Beach Country

Club, and has already produced three playoffs -- two spanning nine

holes in 1997 and 2001.

Who could forget Gary McCord and John Jacobs delighting the

gallery with their antics in 1999, when McCord outlasted Jacobs in

five extra holes?

Hale Irwin, the event’s only two-time champion, has a bunker to

thank on the par-3 17th for stopping his tee shot in 1998, allowing

him to make par and eventually the first of his titles.

Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus have both strolled Newport Beach

Country Club’s fairways -- Palmer in 2000 and Nicklaus last year --

creating an electricity in the air that only winners of a combined 24

major championships can create.

Tom Purtzer set a course and tournament record with an

11-under-par 60 in the first round last year en route to his

one-stroke victory over college teammate Morris Hatalsky.

The list keeps growing and is ready to add another chapter.

It has a hard act to follow.

1995: George Archer, contemplating retirement during tournament

week because of a degenerative hip that would later require surgery,

shoots 64 in final round to win inaugural Toshiba Senior Classic, the

first Senior Tour event staged in Orange County, by one stroke at

Mesa Verde Country Club in Costa Mesa.

1996: Jim Colbert enters final round with a five-stroke lead and

wins in wire-to-wire fashion by two strokes at Newport Beach Country

Club, named the tournament’s site only eight months earlier. Bob

Eastwood shoots a final-round 64 to tie the course record, but comes

up just short. Bob Neely, president and founder of International

Sports and Event Marketing who originally brought Toshiba in as title

sponsor, becomes the tournament’s executive director after Orange

County Sports Association, the event’s first managing operator, files

for bankruptcy.

1997: A then-Senior Tour record nine-hole playoff concludes when

Bob Murphy sinks an 80-foot birdie putt up to the par-3 17th green’s

second tier to defeat Jay Sigel. Murphy tosses his straw hat in the

air, throws his putter and places his hands on his forehead after the

stunning putt that found the cup’s back side. Both Sigel and Murphy

play the 17th three times before an outcome is decided. Sigel said,

“I was getting dizzy, going around, and around, and around.”

1998: Hale Irwin captures the first of his two Toshiba victories

-- he is the only player to accomplish the feat in 10 events --

following a then-course record 62 in the final round. Irwin, who

begins Sunday’s final round five strokes off the pace, passes 11

players to secure victory. The Famous Bunker Rake on the treacherous

par-3 17th hole, however, aids his effort. The rake stops his ball

from rolling into the pond fronting the green, allowing him to get

up-and-down for par. The rake is housed in Newport Beach Country

Club’s clubhouse. The victory vaults Irwin to Senior Tour Player of

the Year honors with seven victories. Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach

raises more than $700,000 in its first year running Toshiba -- also

its inaugural Senior Tour event -- and is later named Charity of the

Year.

1999: Gary McCord, making his Senior Tour debut, outlasts John

Jacobs on the fifth playoff hole with a birdie to claim the

championship -- his first victory in 383 starts -- after both delight

the fans with their humorous antics. McCord and Jacobs eliminate half

of the four-player playoff field that include Al Geiberger and Allen

Doyle with eagles on the first playoff hole. The four players finish

at 54 holes of regulation at 9-under 204. McCord sinks an 18-foot

putt after Jacobs chips in from 90 feet. After McCord makes his putt,

he motions with a curled index finger for Jacobs to come and fetch

his ball from the cup at 18 as fans go crazy. Jacobs retrieves his

ball, then chucks it into the crowd of 10-deep people.

2000: Heavy rains and gusts of up to 20 mph force officials to

cancel the final round of the tournament, limiting the event to 36

holes. Allen Doyle is declared the champion after shooting a 4-under

67 Saturday and finishes at 6-under 136 for an eventual one-stroke

victory over Howard Twitty and Jim Thorpe. No players tee off Sunday,

the first and still only time in tournament history a round is

canceled. Seventy-year-old Arnold Palmer plays his first competitive

rounds in Orange County at the event. About 1,200 fans surround first

tee for Palmer’s pro-am round.

2001: On the ninth playoff hole, the second time in tournament

history an extra session spans that number, Jose Maria Canizares

sinks a 24-foot, left-to-right birdie putt on the par-3 17th to

defeat Gil Morgan for his first PGA Tour seniors title and first

victory in nine years. Both nine-hole playoffs are Senior Tour

records. Canizares, who starts the final round five shots off the

pace, and Morgan, both finish 54 holes at 11-under 202.

2002: Hale Irwin wins the second of his Toshiba titles, breaking

his own 54-hole tournament scoring record by four shots since the

tournament moved to Newport Beach Country Club in 1996 with a

17-under (67-64-65 -- 196) performance. Irwin also sets a tournament

record for margin of victory with his five-shot win over 2000 Toshiba

champion Allen Doyle (66-68-67 -- 201). Jim Colbert held the prior

mark with a two-stroke victory in 1996. Before teeing off in the

first round, he switches to forged blade irons, changes from graphite

to steel shafts and adds fairway woods and a new sand wedge.

2003: Australian Rodger Davis shoots a blistering 16-under 197

(65-64-68) to notch his first win on United States’ soil and on the

Champions Tour with a four-stroke victory. Davis, clad in knickers,

just misses tying Hale Irwin’s tournament record (17-under) set a

year earlier. Two weeks before Toshiba, two men hold up Davis,

another golfer and two caddies at gunpoint in a Mexico City

restaurant.

2004: Tom Purtzer fires a tournament and course record 11-under 60

in the first round, which includes nine birdies and an eagle, and

adds 71 and 67 in the second and third rounds, respectively, to

finish 15-under 198 en route to his second Champions Tour victory.

Purtzer, who becomes only the fifth Champions Tour player to shoot

60, defeats college friend Morris Hatalsky by a stroke. History is

also made as Jack Nicklaus, winner of a record 18 major

championships, makes his Toshiba debut. Galleries swell to an

estimated 80,000 as the Golden Bear shoots 3-under 210 to finish tied

for 36th. For the fifth consecutive year, the event surpassed $1

million in net proceeds to charity. Tournament proceeds have exceeded

$6.7 million in cash donations in the seven years since Hoag Hospital

in Newport Beach became the tournament organizer and lead charity.