TAKE A HIKE

Bryce Alderton

The familiar “beeping” will cease into virtual silence. The locks

will hold the gates closed, for the most part. The hose out back will

rest, curled up in a deep sleep that will last three days.

Come next Friday, the cart barn at Newport Beach Country Club will

be closed for business, except in the most extenuating of

circumstances, as the 11th annual Toshiba Senior Classic tees off.

Even though each prior tournament has featured its own special

nuances, this championship embarks down an entirely new path, a trail

not blazed before.

This is the first year players, who all are age 50 and older, will

not have a choice of whether to walk or ride a cart at Newport Beach

Country Club during three rounds of competition.

They all must walk this year, during three official rounds of all

Champions Tour co-sponsored events, except for the majors, plus The

First Tee Open at Pebble Beach and the season-ending Charles Schwab

Cup Championship -- all 72-hole events, Jeff Adams, a tour spokesman,

said in an e-mail.

Players and caddies may ride in carts during practice rounds and

pro-ams at all but the majors and in the aforementioned two

tournaments.

The policy was developed by players and staff working together

through the Player Advisory Council and the Policy Board and has been

phased in since the decision was made in November 2003.

Carts have not been permitted at the Senior British Open and the

U.S. Senior Open -- except in Lake Tahoe in 1985 due to altitude --

and the Senior PGA Championship since 2000.

As expected, the ruling has stirred much discussion among players,

fans and golf’s supporters.

Newport Beach Country Club head professional Paul Hahn, who played

in last year’s Toshiba on a sponsor’s exemption after turning 50 a

month before the tournament, believes the ruling comes down to image.

“I think [Champions Tour officials] don’t want carts showing on

television where viewers can see them,” Hahn said. “But there are

only a handful of guys on the tour who need a cart.”

Hahn’s assessment hits fairly close to the mark.

“Our reason is we think the new policy is in the best interests of

the Champions Tour short and long term,” Adams said. “It enhances our

product both on site and on [television] and focuses on the

competitive aspects of the tour, which we think is very important. We

also think it is consistent with our fan-friendly interactive

elements.”

The argument against the rule is that it could filter out some of

the game’s premier personalities such as Chi Chi Rodriguez.

“I would hate to lose a big name because he couldn’t walk,” said

Mike Reehl, Director of Golf at Santa Ana Country Club who suffers

from a slipped disc in his lower back.

Reehl said the injury occurred 15 years ago, but has gotten

progressively worse the last five years.

“If it is really sore, I can hardly play,” Reehl said. “The doctor

said it’s worn away in three spots. The more activity I do, like

hitting a lot of balls, it gets real sore.”

Reehl, though, said walking is easier on his back than riding in a

cart.

“The worst thing is sitting or standing in the same position for a

long time,” Reehl said. “It freezes up. I have to keep moving and

keeping it loose.”

Adams said the rule isn’t intended to deter or affect player

participation with respect to age.

The rule, though, has and will affect defending Toshiba champion

Tom Purtzer, 53, who suffers from a sliding disc in his lower back

that forced him to play in seven fewer tournaments last year. Purtzer

won twice and placed in the top 10 in eight of 19 total events last

year and narrowly missed hitting $1 million in earnings for a second

straight season.

The pain has become more severe and Purtzer told reporters at a

Toshiba press conference last month it could trim his tournament

schedule down to 15 or 18 this year.

There is a chance Purtzer could qualify for a cart under the

Americans With Disabilities Act, but is leery of entering litigation.

“I certainly don’t want to sue the organization that has been good

to me all these years,” Purtzer said. “All I’m trying to do is figure

out a way to be able to ride a cart and that’s something they’ve been

doing the last 25 years on the Champions Tour. I just don’t

understand what the problem is with carts. The thing the tour’s

attorneys tell us is that nobody would qualify under ADA guidelines.

They like to say they won Casey Martin’s case because it’s a

definite, well-defined description of what those guidelines are for

the PGA Tour. On the other hand, we talked to another attorney who

said if you have a heart attack, you’re ADA.

“We did three surveys of all the players last year and the last

survey we took in September, October, there were 75 guys who didn’t

care if we had carts and 12 guys who said we should do away with

carts. It’s not just the guys who ride carts, because there’s only

10-20 guys who use carts. It’s not just the guys who walk who think

carts are a problem. They just don’t see the problem with having

carts out there.”

If back pain wasn’t an issue, Purtzer said he would rather walk.

“I’d love to be able to walk all the time,” said Purtzer, who tied

both Newport Beach Country Club course and Champions Tour records

with an 11-under-par 60 in the opening round at last year’s Toshiba.

“You see the golf course better when you are walking. You see the

slope of the greens and everything else when you are walking up on a

green.

“My first year on tour we had a great situation where you could

ride whenever you wanted to. I’d ride from tee shot to ball and walk

from there on in. That was the best way to do it. Looking back, that

was [PGA Tour Commissioner] Tim [Finchem’s] way for getting everyone

ready for the fact he was going to take the carts away.”

Adams verified that 15 to 20 players regularly used carts last

year.

There isn’t much courses hosting Champions Tour events can do

except simply to comply.

Newport Beach Country Club’s reining men’s club champion Jeff

Wright tries to make it out during tournament week to watch some of

his favorite tour players.

“I think that whatever it takes to keep the seniors entertaining

us, let them take whatever they need to get around,” Wright said.

Jeff Purser, in his eighth year as tournament director for

Toshiba, said the cart ban isn’t the most pressing issue the tour

faces.

“I’m not sure what [the tour’s] agenda is,” Purser said. “I’m not

convinced this is important to the tour. The tour is a balance

between competition, entertainment, nostalgia and seeing the legends

play. I’m not convinced this makes it that much different

“I respect the decision. It’s not something we can influence.”