Toshiba extends on Champions Tour for three years

When it comes to longest-running title sponsors on the Champions Tour, Toshiba is the leader, and it will continue to be.

Toshiba Corporation extended its title sponsorship of the Toshiba Classic through 2017.

Atsutoshi Nishida, the company’s chairman, made the announcement at the event’s annual Breakfast with a Champion Tuesday morning at the Balboa Bay Resort.

The Toshiba Classic, in its 20th year, is the most charitable event on the Champions Tour, raising $1 million each year to benefit Hoag Hospital.

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It’s always fun for some to pick a winner before the Toshiba Classic begins. If you believe in going with the guy with momentum you should take Bernhard Langer, who won the Toshiba Classic in 2008.

He finished up last season as the Champions Tour money list leader and was No. 1 in the season-long Charles Schwab Cup race. Then he opened this year with a victory at Hualalai, winning the Mitsubishi Electric Championship.

Langer then finished tied for seventh and T2 in his next two events. Now he’s at Newport Beach, where the weather is excellent and the course is in tip-top shape.

The 56-year-old, a World Golf Hall of Famer who won the Masters twice, is also in great shape. He talked Wednesday about pacing himself throughout the year so that he’s ready for each event that he enters.

He also talked about the good nature and camaraderie on the Champions Tour, but how he turns on his competitive fire when he plays.

Whether it be at Augusta or Newport Beach, there really is no difference for Langer.

“To me, any time I tee a ball up in a tournament, I want to give the best I have, I want to be the best I can be,” he said. “Even if you go out there and play me for $5 or $10, I’m going to be kind of almost as turned on as almost playing the Masters. That might sound weird to you but that literally is how it is. We could play ping pong, I want to beat you when I play ping pong against you or whatever we do, or pool, it doesn’t matter. It might not be a good comparison with the Masters, but the basic instinct is the same.”

Langer also said his faith in Jesus Christ is another reason for success in his game.

The players, age 50-55, usually perform at a high level on the Champions Tour, yet Langer is trying to be one of the exceptions.