OJAI SENIOR GOLF TOURNAMENT : Legends to Play on Fabled Course

For one of the few times on their tournament calendar, some of players on the Senior PGA Tour will be playing on a golf course older than they are when they tee it up today for the opening round of the $350,000 GTE West Classic at the fabled Ojai Valley Inn and Country Club.

Arnold Palmer, Billy Casper, Bob Charles, Chi Chi Rodriguez, Gene Littler and defending champion Harold Henning head the 72-player field for the 54-hole tournament.

Henning captured the 1988 GTE West Classic at the Wood Ranch Golf Club in Simi Valley by shooting a two-under-par 214.

“It will be nice to return as defending champion,” he said. “Obviously, I would like to win again this year. It’s always much nicer to win because nobody remembers who comes in second.”

The tournament site was shifted north into the town of Ojai when players criticized the severity of the Wood Ranch course and the howling winds that raked the area during the event. Henning was the only player to break par on the difficult course.

At Ojai they will find a relatively easy, par-70 layout that has been given a 70.6 rating by the Southern California Golf Assn. and is lined with hundred-year-old eucalyptus trees.

The course was the pet project of glass manufacturer Edward Libbey, who built the course during the mid 1920s on his own land, using his own money.

The course, located 30 miles east of Santa Barbara, was designed by Billy Bell and George Thomas, the same golf course architects who created the famed Riviera Country Club course in Pacific Palisades, as well as the Los Angeles and Bel Air Country Club layouts.

The Ojai course underwent a $3 million restoration in 1988. And despite being markedly easier than the Wood Ranch layout, it still promises problems for the seniors who can’t keep the ball in the fairway.

“The greens are fairly demanding,” said the Ojai director of golf, Scott Flynn. “There will also be great opportunity for risk-taking, which makes for an exciting tournament.”

Expected to pose the stiffest challenge to Henning for the top prize is the left-handed Charles, the steady New Zealander who was the Senior PGA Tour’s top money-winner in 1988 with $533,929.

Charles has won five events this year and has already won $592,396. He said winning the money title again this year is his driving motivation.

“I have a chance to win back-to-back titles,” he said. “The chances are I won’t have that chance again. Some of the greats of golf, including Jack Nicklaus and Lee Trevino, will soon be eligible (for the Senior Tour).”

Trevino, who qualifies for the Senior PGA Tour later this week when he celebrates his 50th birthday, said he may make his second-career golfing debut next week in Hawaii in the final event on the 1989 Senior PGA Tour calendar.

Admission for the pro-am rounds Tuesday and Wednesday is $8. Thursday and Friday’s rounds of the tournament carry a $12 admission fee with the price rising to $15 for Saturday’s final round.

Tickets will be sold at the gate.

All three rounds of the tournament will be televised by ESPN.