Classic Sits on Firmer Foundation

Presentation is paramount in hosting a professional golf tournament, and last year’s Toshiba Senior Classic ran into an aesthetic snag before it started.

The weekend before tournament week, a powerful Pacific storm rolled into Orange County and winds toppled a temporary steel archway that spanned the entrance to Mesa Verde Country Club in Costa Mesa.

The archway--affixed with the names of corporate sponsors, the lifeblood of professional golf--was never put back up.

Until now. Bob Neely, whose company is organizing the tournament this year, wanted it in place at Newport Beach Country Club, the event’s new site, and asked the head of his construction crew about it.

“He said, ‘Yeah, I can do it for you,’ ” Neely said. “ ‘But we’re going to do it different this year. It wasn’t anchored properly.’ ”

It would be unfair to use the fallen arch as a metaphor for the first Toshiba Senior Classic. By some measures the event was a success. Approximately 30,000 people turned out for Orange County’s first Senior PGA Tour event, a sizable percentage of whom watched Sunday as George Archer beat Dave Stockton and Tom Wargo by one stroke. But the event lost a considerable amount of money, according to several people involved, prompting a change of management.

This year it’s clear the event has stronger foundations.

It will be in full swing Friday morning when some of the biggest names in senior golf--Gary Player, Hale Irwin, Lee Trevino, Chi Chi Rodriguez--start their quests for the $1-million purse. ESPN will provide television coverage; the Metlife blimp will be cruising overhead.

It’s a scene that Neely, president of International Sports and Event Marketing, hopes is played out for years to come at Newport Beach Country Club. “I plan on being here for a long, long time,” Neely said. “If I were to give you a time frame, this event better be going on for 15 years plus.”

However, the event’s longevity depends on the title sponsor, Toshiba’s Irvine-based computer systems division. Toshiba’s original three-event, $3.2-million commitment ends next year. July is the deadline for the company to agree to an option for three more years.

Tom Scott, Toshiba vice president and general manager of the computer division, said his company is seriously considering continuing its sponsorship. “We feel very pleased about it,” Scott said, “but we haven’t made a decision yet.”

Toshiba wasn’t pleased last year, Scott said. PGA Tour events are run on a nonprofit basis, with any surpluses being donated to charity, but because the inaugural Toshiba Senior Classic lost money, there was nothing to donate.

Scott said Toshiba used its own funds to make a donation to the charities. This year, Neely has guaranteed the Make a Wish, ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) and National Dyslexia foundations will receive donations.

Hoping to avoid a repeat performance, Toshiba pushed to replace the Orange County Sports Assn. as the manager of the event. The OCSA was the driving force that brought the senior tour to Orange County. But the organization, which later declared bankruptcy after running up a $1.5-million debt, had only five months to plan and sell the event after Toshiba signed on in October.

“From an athletic standpoint, we thought the tournament came off very well,” said Don Andersen, then president of the OCSA. “We had such a short period of time to put it together.

“Nothing that we did in conjunction with that tournament would we need to apologize for because it was first-rate all the way.”

Tim Crosby, a Senior PGA Tour official, agreed the tournament came off well but said the OCSA might have overextended itself when it had to run the event 2 1/2 months after the Freedom Bowl. “It seemed like a case of biting off more than they could chew,” Crosby said. “Running a golf tournament--it takes a week--but it’s a 12-month job.”

Neely’s company hasn’t had a full year to prepare for this week, but it had a head start because it served as Toshiba’s liaison to the event last year. Neely, a tireless promoter with 25 years of marketing experience, hit the ground running. He switched the course to Newport Beach Country Club, and hasn’t stopped talking up the event.

“Our objective is threefold,” Neely said. “We want to make sure that in time this is the finest event on the Senior PGA Tour, to make sure everybody in Orange County is aware of this event and give them an opportunity to participate either as a gallery member, a sponsor or a pro-am participant, and to raise as much for charity as we can.”

Newport Beach seems a natural fit for such an event. Mesa Verde is tucked in a quiet Costa Mesa neighborhood and parking was a problem. Newport Beach Country Club is within walking distance of Fashion Island, with its shopping, hotels, restaurants and movie theaters--and ample parking.

Neely said his company is spending about $250,000 on advertising, including banners on Jamboree Road, MacArthur Boulevard and Pacific Coast Highway and an OCTA bus painted in the tournament colors, featuring pictures of Jim Colbert, Trevino and Rodriguez.

Most of the top players are here--18 of the top 20 on last year’s money list--and considering the rain, crowds have been substantial so far. The true test of drawing power, however, is the competition Friday through Sunday.

Crosby believes that because of the preparations, the public will come. “We strive to have our events be the event of the week in a community,” he said, “and it seems like they have been able to pull that off.”