Golf: Toshiba, Hoag agree on new three-year contract

Richard Dunn

NEWPORT BEACH - Hoag Hospital, the operating charity of the Senior

PGA Tour event at Newport Beach Country Club, agreed Monday to a

three-year contract extension with Toshiba, the title sponsor.

The Irvine-based Toshiba Computer Systems Group signed through 2003,

with purse increases each year. This year’s purse is $1.3 million.

Further, Newport Beach Country Club President Jerry Anderson announced

that his club has reached an agreement for the same three-year period to

host Orange County’s only PGA event. The club has played host to the

event since 1996. The inaugural Toshiba Senior Classic was played at Mesa

Verde Country Club in 1995.

“Our relationship with Toshiba over the past three years could not

have been any better,” said tournament director Jeff Purser, who last

week announced that this year’s event, March 3-5, would feature

70-year-old golf legend Arnold Palmer.

In its first year as the operating charity, Hoag Hospital was named

the Senior PGA Tour Charity of the Year in 1998, when it raised more than

$700,000. Last year it raised more than $800,000.

“We have been fortunate to raise phenomenal amounts of money for

charity, and the single biggest catalyst is the generous support we

receive from Toshiba,” said Purser, in his third year as event director.

By the luck of the draw, the senior tour stop at Newport Beach has

also provided some of the best golf theater on television.

Last year, the wisecracking Gary McCord, a CBS golf commentator who

had never won on the PGA Tour or senior tour, battled through an often

hilarious five-hole playoff to capture his first title.

Bob Murphy won a then-senior tour record nine-hole playoff against Jay

Sigel in the 1997 Toshiba Classic, then Hale Irwin shot a course-record

62 in the final round to capture the ’98 event with the help of a

now-famous bunker rake, which stopped his ball from rolling into the

water as he got up and down to save par on 17.

“Toshiba is proud to be involved in the Toshiba Senior Classic, a

tournament that has captivated golf fans and profoundly impacted so many

vital charities in the process,” Toshiba executive Joe Formichelli said.

For Newport Beach Country Club, which has upgraded its golf course

each year it has hosted the event, the new agreement marks further

community stability in terms of planning for the tournament and an

economic windfall for its surrounding hotels, restaurants and shopping

centers.

“We have been pleased to provide the setting for some of the most

exciting moments in golf over the last (five) years,” Anderson said. “The

Toshiba Senior Classic has done so much good for Orange County, we’re

just thrilled to play a part in that.”

Purser said “Newport Beach Country Club is quite simply the home of

the Toshiba Senior Classic. It is the perfect course for a senior tour

event, and their entire staff is really committed to hosting a tournament

that stands out among the finest on the schedule.”