Rainout Gives Doyle a Victory

Allen Doyle got up Sunday morning expecting to have to work for his first Senior PGA Tour victory of 2000, but as he neared Newport Beach Country Club that seemed less and less necessary.

“When I drove to the golf course,” said Doyle, who was leading the Toshiba Senior Classic by one stroke after 36 holes, “I said, ‘Wow, there has been a lot of rain.’ ”

To say the least. About an inch and a half had fallen since Doyle made a birdie on the 18th hole Saturday afternoon. That one-foot putt proved to be the winner when Sunday’s final round was canceled at 8:30 a.m. because the course was unplayable.

It was still raining hard half an hour later when Doyle accepted the winner’s check for $195,000 as 25-mph wind gusts buffeted the media tent. Moments later the wind blew through a Velcro seam in the tent and Doyle was moved inside the clubhouse to talk to reporters.

Clearly, it wasn’t a day to be playing golf.

Senior PGA Tour officials had hoped to avoid the worst of the rain by starting 30 minutes early off the first and 10th tees, but it poured all night. When officials reached the course at 6:30 a.m., they found that most greens and tees were under water. The start was delayed for an hour and then two, but when the weather continued to deteriorate the tournament was called.

Doyle, who won four tournaments as a senior tour rookie in 1999, put himself into position to win this time with a remarkable back nine Saturday. He birdied five of the final eight holes, including 17 and 18, to shoot four-under-par 67 and finish six-under 136. During his run, Doyle started to think that leading after the second round might mean something.

“I was very conscious of that when I got to 18,” he said Saturday. “You know I got to thinking, ‘Jeez, if I could get to six [under] and something does happen . . . ‘ “

He wasn’t the only one with that thought. Howard Twitty, who finished in a second-place tie with Jim Thorpe one shot behind Doyle, said it was in the back of his mind when he was putting from the fringe on the 18th green for a birdie to move into a tie for the lead. The 15-foot putt narrowly missed.

If the putt had fallen, Doyle and Twitty would have played off for the title Sunday. Tournament officials would have waited for a break in the weather, prepared a par-three hole and had them play it until there was a winner.

Instead of a chance at his first senior tour title, however, Twitty, who won three times during a 25-year career on the regular tour, settled for the $104,000 second-place share and his highest finish in two years as a senior.

Roy Vucinich, a former club pro who shared the first-round lead with Dave Eichelberger, finished fourth at 138 and won $78,000.