Another Tournament the Talk Among Golfers on Practice Tee

They’re supposed to be preparing for a golf tournament at Newport Beach Country Club, but it was hard to find anyone who wasn’t talking college basketball Tuesday.

Jim Albus, who has five Senior PGA Tour titles since joining the tour in 1990, was walking around the practice tee at the Toshiba Senior Classic armed with NCAA basketball tournament brackets. Albus and a friend are organizing a pool for basketball junkies on the tour. He’s hoping to get about 20 entries but wouldn’t say how much his pool costs.

“I’m a basketball nut,” said Albus, who played in a high school and a year in college at Bucknell before turning to golf.

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Jim Dent, who tied for 11th last year at Newport Beach, was more than a little relieved to be standing in 80-degree weather hitting golf balls with a few of his buddies.

“I came from Louisiana today and barely made it here,” Dent said. “Coming through Texas, it was raining and bumpy, bumpy, bumpy.”

Dent, 58, has won 10 times on the Senior Tour and is the ninth all-time leading money winner with nearly $5 million. On the PGA Tour, Dent was considered one of the longest hitters of his day. He’s still no slouch--Dent was the circuit’s longest hitter from 1989 to 1994--but he’s also not in Tiger Woods’ area code.

Dent, 6 feet 3 and 224 pounds, said he has studied Woods’ swing and has begun to understand how a 155-pound player can generate that kind of power.

“I’ve watched how he holds his hands back until the last minute,” Dent said. “He gets arc in that club and then releases his hands. But another thing about Tiger, the kid is great.”

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Deane Beman, who is entered as a sponsor’s exemption, has had his sore left shoulder examined by Dr. Lewis Yocum, an orthopedic specialist and Angel team physician.

“What’s been happening, I hit it pretty good for the first 10 or 11 holes then it’s like I’m a pitcher looking into the dugout at the manager and I’m saying ‘Take me out before they start hitting me!’ ” said Beman, who has played one tour event, the American Express Invitational, where he finished tied for 38th.

Beman, 58, said an MRI indicated there was a muscle tear in his shoulder. In November, Beman found out that the pain he thought was a rib cage injury for three years actually was an arthritic condition in his spine.

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Ray Carrasco of Irvine was one of four players who came out of Monday’s qualifying round at Marbella Country Club in San Juan Capistrano and made it into the field of 78. Carrasco shot a 67 and was the low qualifier.

Times staff writer Thomas Bonk contributed to this report.