Short Game Is Key for Seniors

At 6,584 yards, Newport Beach Country Club is the shortest course on the Champions Tour, and that may be the reason it annually produces the longest list of players in contention.

The bunching trend continued Friday when Bob Eastwood chipped in from 12 yards for birdie on the 18th hole for a six-under 65 and took a one-shot lead after one round of the Toshiba Classic.

Graham Marsh and Bruce Lietzke shot 66, Dave Eichelberger had a 67 and then the leaderboard got crowded with a logjam of 10 players tied at 68. Lanny Wadkins, Peter Jacobsen, 2004 champion Tom Purtzer and defending champion Mark Johnson are in that group.

“That’s the nature of a golf course like this,” Marsh said. “Things tend to bunch up because it’s not the type of course that favors any type of player. Anybody can play well here.”

The mixed bag of players within three shots includes major championship winners, journeymen, long hitters, short hitters, players with multiple Champions Tour victories and some searching for their first.

It also includes Eastwood, Marsh and Eichelberger, all of whom are 60 or older.

“This course reminds me of the old days,” said Wadkins, who won 21 times on the PGA Tour and now splits his time between playing and television commentating. “You’ve got to think your way around a course like this and you’ve got to hit your first shot to set up your second.”

This is the 11th installment of the Toshiba Classic at Newport Beach Country Club. In the previous 10, only once has a player held a first-round lead of more than one shot. That was in 2004, when Purtzer opened with a course-record 60 and led by four.

In all the other years, 20 players on average have been within three shots after the first round. That probably explains why Purtzer has been the only first-round leader who won since Gary McCord in 1999.

“No lead is safe around this place,” Marsh said. “There is always the threat of somebody putting up a low number and when it’s this bunched up you can jump over a lot of people. You can be six shots up and lose by four if you shoot 71 on the last day.”

Eastwood, a three-time winner on the PGA Tour, has two Champions Tour victories, both in 1997. He has played in every event at Newport Beach and won a minor professional event called the Little Bing Crosby on the course in 1976.

That experience, he said, is a major plus on a course filled with nuances and intricacies.

“I think it helps a lot,” said Eastwood, who is playing for only the second time this year. “There’s a lot of tendencies out here, but also certain areas that go against the tendencies.”

Wadkins, 56, the 1977 PGA Championship winner, is seeking his second Champions Tour victory. Beginning with the Masters in three weeks, he is committed to his television duties with CBS and will not be able to play, so he said he puts a little more pressure on himself early in the year than most players.

“I’m sitting here feeling like I’m getting close, but at the same time knowing that this could be it until June,” he said. “Here and maybe Mexico [the Puerto Vallarta Golf Classic, March 31-April 2]. I try to be patient and just hope to get my game ready, but I have to be realistic that the best chance I’ve got are these two tournaments.”

Because of the threat of rain, tee times for today will be between 10:15 a.m. and 12:15 p.m. off the first and 10th tees. Eastwood, Marsh and Lietzke go off the first tee at 12:15.