SENIOR CLASSIC NOTEBOOK / STEVE KRESAL : Players Finding Mesa Verde a Lot Narrower This Time

The most common remarks made by players at Mesa Verde Country Club this week for the Toshiba Senior Classic are about the trees.

Several of the Senior PGA Tour players were on the regular tour when the Costa Mesa course was a tour stop in the early 1960s.

But at the time, Mesa Verde (which opened in 1959) was a young course and many of trees didn’t even hint at troubles they would cause golfers as they matured.

“I know one thing,” said Al Geiberger, who first played at Mesa Verde in 1960. “Thirty years of tree growth really changed this course. It will be tight driving.”

The talk on the driving range is that placement is more important than distance because even shots that venture only a few yards into the trees could prevent players from having a clear shot to the green.

“Guys on the Senior Tour like courses like this,” Lee Trevino said. “This is a classical-style course like the ones most of us grew up playing. We don’t like those stadium-style courses.”

The maturity of the trees isn’t the only difference at Mesa Verde this week.

Maybe the most significant change is the way the course will be played. The order of the nines has been switched to offer a more dramatic finishing hole--a 390-yard par four with with a large lake protecting the left side of the fairway and the front of the green.

Otherwise, the players would finish with a 175-yard par three also protected by a lake.

Another reason for the change is that the par four offers a much larger viewing area for spectators. Plus, and maybe more importantly for the future of the tournament, there is space for grandstands. There are three sets of stands, all decorated with corporate logos.

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New hole on the block: The course will play at 6,307 yards and par 70. It will return to par 71 next year.

The change will be on the 15th hole. Normally a par four, it plays as a 165-yard par three this year.

The fairway was being redone but because of rain and other delays, it wasn’t ready in time for the tournament.

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Skippy: One of Geiberger’s trademarks on the PGA Tour was that he always carried a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in his bag to snack on during a round.

Geiberger said he still endorses Skippy peanut butter and still eats a sandwich every round.

But now that one of his sons works as his caddie, they take two sandwiches out for each round.

“I always tell people that you can’t really hurt a peanut butter and jelly sandwich,” Geiberger said. “Even if you sit on it.”

Geiberger admitted that he didn’t remember the exact location of Mesa Verde and after the recent rains, figured the course was flooded out and didn’t even bother to show up for Monday’s practice round.

“I imagined this flat course that would still be like a swamp,” he said.

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Ace: Tom Weiskopf recorded a hole-in-one during Thursday’s pro-am. Using a four-iron, he aced the seventh hole, which was playing at 172 yards.

Even with the ace, Weiskopf, who said he hasn’t been playing well lately, shot five-over 75.

He said much of his trouble started last summer when he broke a wood-headed driver that had been a long-time favorite.

The club was beyond repair and Weiskopf hasn’t found another driver he feels comfortable with.

“It’s very difficult not having confidence in a very important club,” he said.