Senior PGA Event Coming to Orange County : Golf: Tournament, which recently found a sponsor, will be held in March at Mesa Verde in Costa Mesa.

Don Andersen’s long sought-after goal of a pro golf tournament in Orange County seemed doomed in April when the title sponsor dropped out at the last minute.

With another sponsor secured, Andersen, executive director of the Orange County Sports Assn., Tuesday announced the first Toshiba Classic, a Senior PGA event that will be held March 13-19 at Mesa Verde Country Club in Costa Mesa.

Andersen and Ric Clarson of the Senior Tour said that five months is a comparatively short time, but they are confident course reconstruction now under way will be completed and supplemental sponsors will be signed on in time. And they weren’t concerned about competition from two other Senior events in the Southland--the Ralphs Senior Classic at Rancho Park, which concluded Sunday, and the FHP Seniors Classic at Ojai, which will be held two weeks before the new event.

“We’re now at the point where it’s clear Orange County is its own market when it comes to professional sports,” Clarson, a former University of Florida basketball player, said Tuesday at Anaheim Stadium. “The impact on the Rancho Park and Ojai events is none. The title sponsors for all three events are based in Orange County.”

ESPN will air the tournament daily. Prize money will be $800,000 in the first year and $1 million for 1996 and ’97.

Andersen and Senior Tour officials looked at a number of sites before settling on Mesa Verde, which was host to the last PGA stop in Orange County--the late, great Haig Open won by Bob Dickson in 1968.

“We’ve been working on this for about four years,” Clarson said. “We took our first look at this market in 1990.”

A deal appeared done in April, but it fell through when the company that was lined up to sponsor the event was sold.

Orange County hasn’t played host to a pro golf event since the Los Coyotes LPGA Classic in 1992.

Andersen said he hoped he could bring the LPGA back to the county, perhaps for a September date, in the future.

“We think the county of Orange is due for some good sports news,” Andersen said, referring to the demise of the OCSA’s Pigskin Classic college football game in August, the threat of the Rams’ departure, the baseball strike and the hockey lockout.