Pga Champions Tour

INS AND OUTS OF THE TOURNAMENT A parking map, schedule of events and facts and figures of the 11th annual Toshiba Senior Classic, which will be played at Newport Beach Country Club next week, provides everything the golf fan would want heading into the PGA Champions Tour event. Page A3 PURTZER FEATURE Defending Toshiba Senior Classic champion Tom Purtzer has a bad back and issues with the Champions Tour's new no-cart policy, but he's off to a fast start this season.

MARCH 1  Morning Practice Rounds for Professionals  Monday Pro-Am — Shotgun start at 12:15 p.m.   MARCH 2  Morning Practice Rounds for Professionals  Breakfast with a Champion, presented by The Allergan Foundation. Newport Beach Marriott Hotel & Spa Breakfast with keynote PGA Champions Tour speaker; 7 a.m., $120 per person  Shot from the Top, roof top of the Marriott, 10:00 a.m., 2nd green of the NBCC   MARCH 3  Classic Pro-Am, presented by Emulex.

Once again, the numbers from the PGA Champions Tour's Toshiba Senior Classic are impressive. The first is winner Tom Purtzer's opening round 60, which set a new tournament record. The second is 80,000, the approximate number of people who came to see the three-day tournament, drawn no doubt by the allure of Jack Nicklaus' first trip to the Toshiba. The third, and perhaps most important one, is 1 million -- as in the more than $1 million the tournament raised for Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian for the fifth consecutive year.

NEWPORT BEACH — World Hall of Fame golfer Hale Irwin withdrew from the Toshiba Classic Thursday morning because his mother died. Bruce Vaughan will replace Irwin, the Toshiba tournament’s only two-time winner. With 45 titles, Irwin is the most successful player in Champions Tour history. He won his first Toshiba Classic title in 1998, using a final round nine-under-par 62 to vault 11 players and claim a one-shot victory. In 2002, he set a then-tournament record 196 and his five-shot victory was larger than the past six winners combined.

MONDAY, March 14 Monday Pro-Am, 12:30 p.m. Morning practice rounds for professionals TUESDAY, March 15 Champions Breakfast presented by Allergan, 7 a.m., Balboa Bay Club. Breakfast with 1999 Toshiba Senior Classic champion Gary McCord and fellow CBS golf analyst David Feherty. Tickets: $100 per person. Player practice rounds WEDNESDAY, March 16 Classic Pro-Am, first round, shotgun starts at 7 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Amateur foursomes are paired with a different PGA Champions Tour player on each day of this two-day event.

It’s that time of year again. The Toshiba Classic is coming to town. And that means excitement at Newport Beach Country Club and on the streets of Newport Beach. Seventy-nine PGA Champions Tour professionals, including defending champ Bernhard Langer, will compete for the title from Friday through Sunday. The purse: $1.7 million, with $255,500 going to the winner and a good chunk going to charity. Some of the big names who will be trying to dethrone Langer: Ben Crenshaw, Hale Irwine, Tom Kite, Gary Player, Craig Stadler, Curtis Strange, Lee Trevino, Tom Watson and Fuzzy Zoeller.

During the week-long Toshiba Classic golf tournament in Newport Beach Sue Rietzel works six- to 10-hour days, which wouldn’t be out of the ordinary if she were a paid staff member, but she’s a volunteer. And the retired Huntington Beach woman’s work starts long before the tournament comes to town. As the person responsible for coordinating a staff of about 1,000 volunteers, Rietzel begins looking for volunteers in September. Even a bout with breast cancer in 2007 didn’t stop her from giving her time and energy to the tournament, which benefits Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian.

Bryce Alderton Mark Johnson drove beer trucks for 18 years, but on Saturday, the former California state amateur champion revved up his golf game at Newport Beach Country Club. Johnson, 50, in his first full season on the PGA Champions Tour, matched the best second round in tournament history with an 8-under-par 63 to go with a first-round 67 (130) and leads the Toshiba Senior Classic by three strokes over Keith Fergus, who shot 5-under 66, heading into today's final round.

TOP 50 PGA CHAMPIONS TOUR 2003 MONEY LEADERS (current) Rank Name Events Money 1. Dana Quigley (5) $399,743 2. Hale Irwin (4) $346,520 3. David Eger (4) $335,623 4. Bruce Fleisher (5) $331,573 5. Dave Barr (4) $323,340 6. Tom Jenkins (5) $271,560 7. Gil Morgan (4) $271,100 8. V. Fernandez (3) $263,456 9. Tom Watson (3) $248,700 10. Bruce Lietzke (4) $239,890 11. Larry Nelson (4) $204,016 12. Allen Doyle (4)

MARCH 1  Morning Practice Rounds for Professionals  Monday Pro-Am — Shotgun start at 12:15 p.m.   MARCH 2  Morning Practice Rounds for Professionals  Breakfast with a Champion, presented by The Allergan Foundation. Newport Beach Marriott Hotel & Spa Breakfast with keynote PGA Champions Tour speaker; 7 a.m., $120 per person  Shot from the Top, roof top of the Marriott, 10:00 a.m., 2nd green of the NBCC   MARCH 3  Classic Pro-Am, presented by Emulex.

Lee Trevino, a World Golf Hall of Famer and one of the most revered personalities in the game, has committed to play in his third consecutive Toshiba Classic, March 1-7 at Newport Beach Country Club. At age 70, Trevino is the oldest player in the Toshiba Classic field. Trevino has won 29 times on the PGA and Champions Tours. He owns six PGA Tour majors with the 1968 and 1971 U.S. Opens, 1971 and 1972 British Opens and 1974 and 1984 PGA Tour Championships. He holds four Champions Tour majors: the 1990 U.S. Senior Open, 1992 and 1994 PGA Seniors’ Championships and the 1992 Tradition.

During the week-long Toshiba Classic golf tournament in Newport Beach Sue Rietzel works six- to 10-hour days, which wouldn’t be out of the ordinary if she were a paid staff member, but she’s a volunteer. And the retired Huntington Beach woman’s work starts long before the tournament comes to town. As the person responsible for coordinating a staff of about 1,000 volunteers, Rietzel begins looking for volunteers in September. Even a bout with breast cancer in 2007 didn’t stop her from giving her time and energy to the tournament, which benefits Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian.

It’s that time of year again. The Toshiba Classic is coming to town. And that means excitement at Newport Beach Country Club and on the streets of Newport Beach. Seventy-nine PGA Champions Tour professionals, including defending champ Bernhard Langer, will compete for the title from Friday through Sunday. The purse: $1.7 million, with $255,500 going to the winner and a good chunk going to charity. Some of the big names who will be trying to dethrone Langer: Ben Crenshaw, Hale Irwine, Tom Kite, Gary Player, Craig Stadler, Curtis Strange, Lee Trevino, Tom Watson and Fuzzy Zoeller.

Ira Garbutt has heard the joke so many times from golfers at the Toshiba Classic. The tournament chairman laughs every time he hears it. “They say, ‘I have to finish in the top 10 in order to break even,’ ” Garbutt said. “When the guys are playing in the pro-am, the wives are having their own pro-am.” The wives search for highs in department stores. The players shoot for lows on the golf course. The lows tournament organizers want to see are those turned in on scorecards, not at the gate or the traffic at businesses around town.

NEWPORT BEACH — World Hall of Fame golfer Hale Irwin withdrew from the Toshiba Classic Thursday morning because his mother died. Bruce Vaughan will replace Irwin, the Toshiba tournament’s only two-time winner. With 45 titles, Irwin is the most successful player in Champions Tour history. He won his first Toshiba Classic title in 1998, using a final round nine-under-par 62 to vault 11 players and claim a one-shot victory. In 2002, he set a then-tournament record 196 and his five-shot victory was larger than the past six winners combined.

The Toshiba Classic 2007 version is now in the books, and judging by the cash it brought in for Hoag Hospital, bookkeepers are plenty busy right now. That's because this year's tournament raked in a record $1.31 million. All week long, tournament organizers were boasting that the Toshiba Classic was going to make $10 million worth of charitable contributions to Hoag in 10 years. This year's tournament ensured that boasting was justified, as the official tally is now $10.1 million, including a $10,000 check from the PGA. That money, as Hoag CEO Richard Afable noted last week, goes to help fund some of the hospital's most prized care facilities.

NEWPORT BEACH — Two years ago, when Brad Bryant was a rookie on the PGA Champions Tour, the veterans told him, don't miss the Toshiba Classic. They also said it would be a highlight of the tour. "I didn't realize it was going to be the highlight for me," Bryant said, while addressing the media at Newport Beach Country Club Tuesday. The results of a breakout performance, which led to a breakout year, were still being cherished by Bryant Tuesday. He reminisced of 2006, while being a representative for the Toshiba Classic, which will be March 5-11 at NBCC.