Future of Toshiba Tournament Still Up in Air
The Toshiba Senior Classic has a short but awkward history in Orange County.
The tournament has been played at two sites and two organizations have run the event. And it’s only three years old.
Since early May there have been discussions, albeit void of specifics, about leaving the Newport Beach Country Club. In that time, another group has emerged willing to take over the event if needed.
The 552 Club, the fund-raising organization for Hoag Hospital Presbyterian in Newport Beach, would be interested if there was an opening, according to a hospital spokesman.
The 552 Club already runs the Taco Bell Newport Classic, a charity pro-am played at Newport Beach Country Club each winter for the past 27 years.
But the only way the 552 Club could take over is if International Sports and Event Marketing, headed by Bob Neely, stepped aside. ISM currently holds an agreement with Toshiba to run the event.
Neely was at the British Open and tournament manager Stephen Wagner is “on assignment for two weeks,” according to the ISM office so neither could update the situation.
But this is only the latest in the saga of the tournament that was on such a high after a record-setting nine-hole playoff won by Bob Murphy last March.
The first sign of trouble came in late spring when word got out about the large chasm between ISM and Balboa Bay Club International, which runs the Newport Beach Country Club where the event has been held the last two years.
The tournament started in 1995 at Mesa Verde Country Club in Costa Mesa and was run by the Orange County Sports Assn. ISM took over the next year.
Neely’s office received a fax in early May saying that his group wouldn’t be invited back to Newport Beach Country Club because of its failure to pay a food and beverage bill that his organization contested.
Neely said a new course would be selected by end of the first week in June.
Meanwhile, Newport Beach Country Club officials maintain an interest in hosting the event but not if ISM is involved.
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Step lightly: While various metals have nearly wiped out wooden-headed clubs, there is one area where metal appears on the way out--golf spikes.
Country clubs across the country led the move to soft (plastic) flatter spikes, which protects greens and ends complaints about the quality of the putting surface, especially around the cup.
But public courses such as Oak Creek Golf Club in Irvine are staying in step with their elite counterparts. Metal spikes will be banned at Oak Creek starting Aug. 1 as the course becomes the second public course in the Orange County to outlaw metal spikes.
Cypress Golf Club was the first in the county to make the switch in the middle of April and the improvement in the greens and tee boxes was almost immediate.
Oak Creek will charge $5, which includes a set of soft spikes, to change shoes. Attendants will be armed with electric drills to make the process as swift as possible.
Perry Hallmeyer, head professional at Oak Creek, said the idea was brought up by several regulars to preserve the greens and tee boxes at the course, which opened last fall.
Since Oak Creek costs $80-$110 a round, it’s no surprise that the idea came from those used to country club quality courses.
With Oak Creek making the switch, one has to wonder how many other county courses are considering following.
The most logical one would be Pelican Hill Golf Club, which has 36 holes and is run by Western Golf, the same management company that operates Oak Creek.
But there aren’t any immediate plans to do so according to head professional Rob Ford, who said they will watch how well it is received at Oak Creek.
Ford said that because Pelican Hill, which commands as much as $195 for a weekend round, is more of a resort destination, it is unlikely to make such a demand on players. One of the reasons is that the course is a lot more hilly than Oak Creek and is sometimes wet because it’s so close to the ocean.
“We’re going to encourage it,” Ford said, “But we’re not ready to commit to it yet.”
It’s also unlikely that any of the other relatively inexpensive public courses will make a spikeless demand on players as well.
Both city-run courses in Anaheim--Dad Miller and Anaheim Hills--are encouraging their men’s and women’s club members to go spikeless but don’t expect to make it mandatory according to director of golf Bob Johns.
“We’re just trying to do it informally and casually,” Johns said. “I’m not sure how big a deal it really is. Over the years I noticed a lot of people going away from golf shoes to playing in athletic shoes.”
The Orange County Golf Notebook runs every other week during the summer. Suggestions are welcome. Call (714) 966-5904, fax 966-5663 or e-mail Martin.Beck@latimes.com or Steve.Kresal@latimes.com
