New Sponsors Focus on Toshiba’s Future

It’s clear the new management team running the Toshiba Senior Open is concentrating on the future and not clinging to the event’s record-setting past.

The tournament--which is March 9-15--gained a brief measure of fame last spring, when Bob Murphy made a monster putt from the front to the back of the 17th green to win a nine-hole playoff that ended just before dark.

But such events are forgotten almost as quickly as the highlight shows switch to something else.

That putt was also about the last positive event associated with the tournament until August, when the Hoag Hospital Foundation took over as the title sponsor.

One of the group’s first acts was to hire Jeff Purser as the tournament director.

Purser, 31, has extensive experience running golf events on the Nike, LPGA and Senior tours. He was the tournament director for the senior stop in Grand Rapids the last two years.

He had some simple reasons for moving from Grand Rapids, Mich., to Newport Beach past being able to play golf in December.

“It’s a bigger market,” he said, “a bigger title sponsor and bigger resources. There are so many positives. I think this tournament can and will be the best on the Senior PGA.

“I’m not just blowing smoke. I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t believe that.”

Such things have been said about the Toshiba tournament before, but Purser has the one thing in his corner that the other two management groups that ran the event didn’t: a strong tie in the community thanks to the involvement of Hoag Hospital’s fund-raising group.

“A tournament has to be community-oriented,” Purser said. “Everything is geared toward the community. Everything we do, we want the community to be part of.”

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Leaving town: After more than 10 years in Orange County, the last five in Brea, the Southern California section of the Professional Golfers Assn. has announced plans to move its headquarters to the Inland Empire.

By itself, that news doesn’t mean much to local golfers, but the section’s other plans might: The SCPGA intends to set its new headquarters on a 36-hole public golf facility.

By late 1999, if all goes as planned, two more quality courses will be up and running within an hour drive of central Orange County.

The SCPGA will build the complex near the western Riverside County city of Calimesa on 400 acres that are to be deeded--without cost--to the organization as part of its deal with the developers of the Oak Valley Project. The developers plan to eventually build 13,000 homes on 6,700 acres.

Because the SCPGA won’t have to pay for the land, its goal of keeping down the price is in reach, said Tom Gustafson, the section’s executive director.

“We are planning a very high-quality program,” Gustafson said. “Our intent is to do it in such a way that it will be affordable golf. It was never our intent to open a course with $100 green fees.”

Gustafson said he is aiming for fees in the $50 range, about the same as Oak Valley Golf Club, the quality public course across Interstate 10 from the site on which the SCPGA course will be built.

The SCPGA, which represents 1,600 PGA golf professionals in Southern California, is aiming for courses that will challenge all ability levels. And, Gustafson said, courses that possess enough character to hold events such as a PGA Tour stop or Skins Game.

“We’d love to hold that type of event,” Gustafson said. “Maybe a PGA Championship, who knows?”

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College update: Kellee Booth, the former Santa Margarita High standout, has helped Arizona State move back into the No. 1 position in the MasterCard Collegiate Golf Rankings.

The Sun Devils wrapped up their fall season by winning the Golf World/Palmetto Dunes event in Hilton Head, S.C., last month.

Booth, a senior, finished tied for fourth with freshman teammate Grace Park at seven-over-par 223, leading Arizona State to a three-stroke victory over second-ranked Arizona.

Park is the top-ranked player in the nation in the individual rankings; Booth is ranked 13th.

Pepperdine’s Jenny Glasgow (Corona del Mar), ranked 81st, is the only other Orange County golfer among the top 100.

UC Irvine’s Mike Lawrence, ranked 73rd, is the only county golfer in the men’s top 100.

However, Chris Berry, a former Esperanza standout, is playing for seventh-ranked Nevada Las Vegas.

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Greenhawk? For the first time in its three years of operation, Redhawk Golf Club has overseeded the fairways, meaning the grass is certainly greener in Temecula these days.

“In the past it was a dormant Bermuda brown,” said Rick Mant, the course’s general manager. “Now it’s a wonderful fairway green.”

Greens fees are $48 Monday through Thursday, $58 on Friday and $75 on weekends and holidays.

Notes

Alan Ochiai, a teaching pro at Tustin Ranch, was named the SCPGA Metro Chapter teacher of the year and junior golf leader of the year.

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The Orange County Golf Notebook runs monthly. Suggestions are welcome. Call (714) 966-5904, fax 966-5663 or e-mail Martin.Beck@latimes.com or Steve.Kresal@latimes.com