Trevino Gets a Good Grip on 68 at Newport Beach

Every hacker’s recurring nightmare visited Lee Trevino last month at the TPC of Tampa Bay. On the 18th hole, with water looming down the right side, Trevino reached into his bag and pulled out . . . his last ball.

Trevino had lost five others during the brutal round--it turned out to be a 76--but managed to finish the hole and avoid an embarrassing situation. Two weeks later, he was laughing about it.

“I told my wife that if I go back, I’m going to take my ball retriever,” Trevino said Friday at Newport Beach Country Club, “because I darn near ran out of balls.”

If Trevino was in a jaunty mood, it likely had something to do with the solid three-under-par 68 he posted in the first round of the Toshiba Senior Classic. It was the first round in the 60s this year for a man who despite turning 61 in December expects to remain competitive on the Senior PGA Tour.

Last year, Trevino broke a two-year victory drought, pushing his senior tour record to 29 wins. Hale Irvin matched the mark later in 2000.

But Trevino, winner of 27 regular tour titles, including two each in the U.S. Open, British Open and PGA Championship, has struggled in 2001 and therefore has been tinkering with his game. He has been playing with graphite shafts instead of steel, an experiment he said he plans to end next week.

Friday, he switched his grip--from overlapping to interlocking--after being unhappy with his ball striking in a pro-am Thursday. Trevino said he has had success with experimenting with the grip in the past but hasn’t stuck with it.

“The last time I tried it, I shot 66,” Trevino said. “I’m the dumbest man. I should wear a football helmet when I walk around so I don’t run into walls or something.”

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Jim Colbert is sporting a new look under his trademark white hat, a bald head and a goatee. He’s hoping to revitalize a career that has had its barren patches over the last few years.

In 1996, a clean-shaven, toupee-wearing Colbert won the Senior Classic and was named Senior PGA Tour player of the year. The following year, he underwent prostate cancer surgery, and a streak of six years with at least one victory ended.

He won again in 1998 but battled knee problems in ’99 and 2000 and had no victories, despite finishing in the top 31 on the money list each year.

Last week, he was in contention but finished second, and next week Colbert, who turns 60 on March 9, will be eligible for Super Seniors events.

“I want to be the best 60-year-old that ever played,” Colbert said.

He’s hoping the goatee throws off some people. He said he has been told it makes him look like actor Sean Connery.

“Maybe they were joking, but I say if I look like Sean Connery, then that baby is staying,” Colbert said.

Colbert shot four-under 67 Friday, but it could have been better. He missed a 2 1/2-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole.

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Two other former Senior Classic champions shot four-under 32 on the back nine to stay in the hunt on a day when 42 players broke par. Hale Irwin, who won in 1998 with a course-record 62 on Sunday, was even through nine holes, and Allen Doyle, who won last year, was one over.

Doyle, who finished with a 68, missed three birdie putts on the back nine, including a five-footer on 18. “I’m thrilled with four under [on the back], but I had a chance to shoot six or seven [under],” he said.

Irwin made birdie on the 10th, 11th and 12th holes, but failed to make a four on any of the par fives on the way to his 67.

Staff writer Peter Yoon contributed to this story.

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Tee Times

Starting times for today’s second round of the Toshiba Senior Classic at the Newport Beach Country Club:

8:30 a.m.--Joe Inman, Orville Moody, Billy Casper

8:40--Don Bies, Harold Henning, Kikuo Arai

8:50--Tom Shaw, Bob Duval, Gene Littler

9--Tom McGinnis, Miller Barber, Jimmy Powell

9:10--Walter Zembriski, Sammy Rachels, Jerry McGee

9:20--Paul Parajeckas, Gibby Gilbert, Tom Watson

9:30--Doug Tewell, Rocky Thompson, Jesse Patino

9:40--Hubert Green, Isao Aoki, Jim Thorpe

9:50--Howard Twitty, Walt Morgan, Bob Charles

10--Chi Chi Rodriguez, Andy North, DeWitt Weaver

10:10--John Jacobs, Mike McCullough, Al Geiberger

10:20--Bill Holstead, David Lundstrom, Vicente Fernandez

10:30--Gary McCord, Mike Smith, Ted Goin

10:40--Tom Wargo, Larry Nelson, Jim Dent

10:50--Jim Albus, Ed Dougherty, Tom Jenkins

11--Hugh Baiocchi, Bob Eastwood, Dave Eichelberger

11:10--Steve Veriato, Terry Dill, Charles Coody

11:20--Tom Kite, J.C. Snead, Walter Hall

11:30--Dale Douglass, Leonard Thompson, Ray Floyd

11:40--Gil Morgan, Stewart Ginn, Bobby Walzel

11:50--Allen Doyle, John Bland, Graham Marsh

Noon--Jim Ahern, Bruce Summerhays, John Mahaffey

12:10 p.m.--George Archer, Lee Trevino, Tommy Aaron

12:20--Jim Colbert, Hale Irwin, John Schroeder

12:30--Dave Stockton, Bob Gilder, Terry Mauney

12:40--Jose Maria Canizares, Bruce Fleisher, Dana Quigley