Pga Tour

Isao Aoki  Best Toshiba finish: T-3rd, 1997  Winner of nine Champions Tour titles and one PGA Tour title. Andy Bean  Best Toshiba finish: T-23rd, 2004  Winner of three Champions Tour events and 11 PGA Tour events. Brad Bryant  Best Toshiba finish: 1st, 2006  Winner of one PGA Tour title and four Champions Tour titles. Jim Colbert  Best Toshiba finish: 1st, 1996  Winner of 20 Champions Tour and eight PGA Tour wins.

Richard Dunn NEWPORT BEACH - Joining an already strong field, Raymond Floyd has committed to the Toshiba Senior Classic for the first time in his distinguished golf career. Floyd, who lives in Palm Beach, Fla., has not played in the Senior PGA Tour event at Newport Beach Country Club in the past because of travel reasons, not wanting to leave his home in the winter. Floyd, last year's Senior Tour Comeback Player of the Year, appears to be part of a player-recruitment windfall with the tour's new West Coast swing, which includes three California stops in consecutive weeks, beginning with the Toshiba Classic (March 2-4)

Corey Pavin, the former UCLA star known for his 1995 U.S. Open victory, will be the featured speaker for the annual Toshiba Classic Breakfast with a Champion presented by The Allergan Foundation March 2 at the Newport Beach Marriott Hotel & Spa. Pavin, a 15-time PGA Tour winner, will be making his Champions Tour debut this year, but will also play select events on the PGA Tour this season. The 1982 NCAA Player of the Year earned the PGA Tour’s Arnold Palmer Award (leading money winner)

NEWPORT BEACH — Fred Couples, Tom Watson, Corey Pavin, Bernhard Langer, Tom Lehman, Tommy Armour III, Fred Funk, Mark O’Meara. These are some of the reasons why many are calling this year’s Toshiba Classic the best in its 16-year-history. If rain doesn’t stop play, this just might be Sweet 16 for the Toshiba Classic, which starts Friday at Newport Beach Country Club. Every year there’s hype about the field in the Classic, but this year there seems to be a special buzz.

BRYCE ALDERTON In a global society, the Toshiba Senior Classic continues to stretch its tentacles to countries near and far to gather the talent that has come to characterize the most philanthropic stop on the Champions Tour. Thanks to the senior tour's national qualifying tournament (aka Q-school) in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., last fall, this year's field -- released Monday -- includes former European Ryder Cup captains, an 11-time winner on the Japan Golf Tour and a native from Zimbabwe who won the Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am in his Champions Tour debut two weeks ago. Mark McNulty became the 11th player to win his first Champions Tour event when he shot a 13-under-par 200 to defeat Larry Nelson by one stroke in the Outback.

The Champions Tour provides an opportunity for golfers to continue their playing careers past what athletes in football or basketball could dream. The tour, for golfers 50 and over, carries with it a collection of golfing greats who possibly have competed on, among others, the PGA, Nationwide, Asian, European and Nationwide tours at a time in their careers. Players today are faced with decisions about which tournaments and tours to play when they map out the upcoming year’s schedule.

Introduced to golf by his uncle, 1968 Masters Tournament winner Bob Goalby. Won first trophy at National Pee Wee Championship in Orlando at age 7...Brother Jerry is the golf coach at Wake Forest...Brother-in-law Dillard Pruitt played the PGA TOUR and is now a TOUR Rules Official...Son Jay, Jr. played college golf at Augusta State and is a now a professional. Second son, Bill, was an All-American at Wake Forest and was the medalist and a semifinalist at the 2002 U.S. Amateur at Oakland Hills CC. Bill also won the 2004 Ben Hogan Award as the top collegiate male golfer and is a member of the PGA TOUR.

The best two words any golf tournament can hear are o7 sold outf7 , especially for a first-time event. With co-chairman Mitch Barker and Kevin Murphy at the controls, the Inaugural Tee Off for Technology Classic has gone from small computer chip to blue-chip stock. The event, hosted by Santa Ana Country Club on Monday, benefits the Newport Harbor High Educational Foundation and raises funds for much-needed technology at the school, long considered a top academic public school.

Richard Dunn As advertised, former major championship winners Ben Crenshaw and Fuzzy Zoeller -- the two most anticipated rookies on the 2002 Senior PGA Tour -- have officially committed to play in the eighth annual Toshiba Senior Classic. Zoeller, one of golf's most engaging personalities, should find immediate success on the Senior Tour if history repeats itself. A gallery favorite, Zoeller won his Masters title in 1979 as a rookie on the PGA Tour and during his first visit to the hallowed grounds at Augusta National.

Bryce Alderton In a tournament noted for boasting one of the strongest fields on the Champions Tour, the 10th annual Toshiba Senior Classic will be void of its top player in 2003. Tom Watson, last year's Player of the Year and leading money winner in his fourth full season on the Champions Tour, will not play in this year's tournament, March 15-21 at Newport Beach Country Club. Watson, winner of 39 PGA Tour tournaments, has a sponsor's obligation and will instead compete in the Bay Hill Invitational in Orlando, Fla., the same week.

When Nick Price won the Toshiba Classic last year there were two firsts he achieved. Now he's looking to accomplish another first at the 18th annual Toshiba Classic. Price will try to be the tournament's first repeat winner when the first of three rounds begin Friday at Newport Beach Country Club, where the pro-am began Monday. Price, who arrives Wednesday, will gladly take the same first-round score he had in 2011. He shot an 11-under-par 60, a Champions Tour, Toshiba Classic and course record.

Hale Irwin is known as the only two-time champion of the Toshiba Classic. During the week of the 18th Toshiba Classic he'll be known as keynote speaker at the annual Breakfast with a Champion, presented by the Allergan Foundation on March 13. The annual event, one of the highlights during the tournament week, begins at 7 a.m. at the Newport Beach Marriott Hotel & Spa. Irwin, a World Golf Hall of Famer, is the winningest player on the Champions...

NEWPORT BEACH — Ronnie Black said to have a shot to win the 16th Toshiba Classic at Newport Beach Country Club Sunday he would have to shoot a 63 and Fred Couples not show up with his putter. Well, Black arrived with his putter and he maneuvered the poa annua greens with near precision en route to a six-under-par 65 and a solo second-place finish (14-under; 67-67-65 – 199) in his second Toshiba Classic. Black finished four shots behind Couples, who claimed his second straight Champions Tour title in three starts (18-under; 66-64-65 – 195)

NEWPORT BEACH — On the PGA Tour, those with ties to Oklahoma State have become well-known with Hunter Mahan and Rickie Fowler making so much noise. On the Champions Tour, for golfers 50 and older, Bob Tway is trying to be heard from too. The 50-year-old, who won eight times on the PGA Tour, shot a six-under-par 65 to share the first-round lead with Mark Wiebe and Chien Soon Lu in the 16th annual Toshiba Classic Friday. Tway, who is seeking his first win on the Champions Tour, shot his best round on the Champions Tour in 12 career starts.

The Champions Tour provides an opportunity for golfers to continue their playing careers past what athletes in football or basketball could dream. The tour, for golfers 50 and over, carries with it a collection of golfing greats who possibly have competed on, among others, the PGA, Nationwide, Asian, European and Nationwide tours at a time in their careers. Players today are faced with decisions about which tournaments and tours to play when they map out the upcoming year’s schedule.

NEWPORT BEACH — Fred Couples, Tom Watson, Corey Pavin, Bernhard Langer, Tom Lehman, Tommy Armour III, Fred Funk, Mark O’Meara. These are some of the reasons why many are calling this year’s Toshiba Classic the best in its 16-year-history. If rain doesn’t stop play, this just might be Sweet 16 for the Toshiba Classic, which starts Friday at Newport Beach Country Club. Every year there’s hype about the field in the Classic, but this year there seems to be a special buzz.

NEWPORT BEACH — Corey Pavin was 35 when he won the U.S. Open in 1995. Up until that time he was like the Dan Marino of golf, the best to have never won a major championship. Pavin, 50, smiled when he talked about the victory during, “Breakfast with a Champion,” an annual event part of the Toshiba Classic Tuesday morning. “To get the media off my back was great,” Pavin told the sellout crowd of 500. “They can be tough.” Pavin didn’t mind the media attention at the Newport Beach Marriott Hotel & Spa. He welcomed questions from the guests and provided humor, as well as insight to the Ryder Cup in his interview with Hank Adler, the Toshiba Classic chairman emeritus.

It wasn’t too long ago when golfing legend Tom Watson ripped into Tiger Woods, delivering a message to the now-downtrodden cautionary tale. Of course Watson wants the best for Woods, a part-time Corona del Mar resident. He wants Woods to return to the game. But at a time when Woods is rehabilitating his career because of the fallout from his infidelity, Watson took the opportunity to point out other faults before Woods returns. “I feel he has not carried the same stature that other great players that have come along like Jack (Nicklaus)

In a tournament known for its generosity, a newcomer to this year’s Toshiba Classic has a streak of selflessness in him. One sentence said it all. It was toward the end of a phone conversation when Corey Pavin, U.S. Ryder Cup captain and Champions Tour rookie made one statement that struck to the core. This statement revealed the inner man. “If I don’t like the way I’m playing, I don’t want to take someone’s spot,” Pavin said Friday from Florida, where he played the Allianz Championship, finishing tied for 34th place (six-under par)