Sponsor Agrees to Extend Senior Tournament
Orange County will have a Senior PGA Tour event at least through the turn of the century, Bob Neely, president of International Sports & Event Marketing, said last week.
Neely, whose company managed the second Toshiba Senior Classic in March, said Toshiba has agreed to a three-year extension through 2000. This week Neely will take a letter of intent from Toshiba and meet with Senior PGA Tour officials. The final contract will be signed within 45 days, Neely said.
The agreement doesn’t specify a host club, but Neely said Newport Beach Country Club, which held this year’s event and is set for 1997, remains his top choice.
“The big thing is to get the commitment from Toshiba,” Neely said. “Then we have plenty of time to get with Newport Beach Country Club. But we’d like to continue having it there because it’s a great venue.”
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By all accounts, the 1996 Toshiba Senior Classic was a success. Tournament officials announced a crowd of 28,500 was on hand Sunday, March 17 to watch Jim Colbert win his first tournament in California. Attendance for the week was estimated at more than 60,000.
The event turned a profit, Neely said, but exactly how much is still in question. Neely said his company dipped into its own funds to boost the total given to charity: $55,000.
Next year, he predicts, will be more financially successful because costs will be somewhat reduced and potential sponsors have now seen the event.
Neely is also hoping he can bring in more people with added attractions. Plans call for musical entertainment on the country club grounds after the golf.
“We are trying to satisfy,” Neely said, “all the people in Orange County who want a little something in addition to golf.”
Golf fans would turn out in droves for Arnold Palmer or Jack Nicklaus, two of the players who haven’t played in the Toshiba event. In 1996, the PGA Tour event Palmer hosts at Bay Hill was the same week as the Toshiba Senior Classic.
“If Arnie’s event is not up against us, trust me, we are going to make an all-out effort to get him,” Neely said. “We are going to try to get both him and Jack. That would be a major coup.”
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Anaheim construction: The remodeled driving range at Anaheim Hills is nearing completion and its grand opening is scheduled July 13. During the grand opening, range balls will be free all day and the course will offer lessons, clinics and demonstrations and no charge.
You can get a preview on the facility Saturday and Sunday, when it opens for a two-day trial run. A bucket of balls will cost $1.
Meanwhile, Dad Miller is in the midst of reworking its seventh and eighth holes with completion expected in late September. The par-three seventh will go from 227 yards from the back tees to a more humane 185. The par-five eighth will increase 50 yards to 505.
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Junior golf: Brea Golf Course is offering two four-day camps, July 15-18 and Aug. 12-16. The $40 camp includes two hours of instruction Monday through Wednesday and golf on the nine-hole executive course and lunch on Thursday.
Tustin Ranch offers a one-hour clinic for juniors every Sunday at 3:30 p.m. The fee is $10.
Notes
Eunice Choi, a former Laguna Hills High golfer, finished second in the Long Beach Women’s City Championship last week. Choi’s UCLA teammate Kathy Choi (no relation) won the tournament by three strokes. Sue Ewart of Seal Beach was third . . . Michael Davis and Scott Dudley won the member/guest tournament at El Toro Marine Base last month. They beat Daniel Coe and Randy Haxton by four strokes.
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