No Victories, but Toledo Is a Winner

Esteban Toledo has spent most of his life overcoming long odds, so there is no reason to think he can’t do it again this week. Toledo, who opened with a four-under 67 Thursday and is two shots behind leader Jesper Parnevik, has no victories and only seven top-10 finishes in 167 career PGA Tour starts.

But for someone who grew up in a poor Mexican town, success is not measured in victories. For a guy who used to hide in golf course trees until the course closed so he could sneak on and play, just being at Riviera is living a dream.

“I don’t know how I got on the tour,” Toledo said. “If you guys saw where I came from, you wouldn’t believe it. I came from minus-zero to now. A lot of people understand the word rich, but they don’t understand the minus-zero. That’s where I came from.”

Toledo, a former boxer who was 12-1 as a professional, is now a tour player who has earned $2,205,330 since 1994 and, after attempting qualifying school for 12 consecutive years starting in 1986, has kept his card for the last five years. He and his wife and two children live in Costa Mesa, but he has built a home for his sister in Mexico and plans on building a church in his hometown of Mexicali.

“A few people don’t believe I’m here,” Toledo said. “But it’s courage. The more they told me I couldn’t make it, the harder I worked.”

The hard work hasn’t stopped. Toledo is a tour fixture, having played a tour-high 36 tournaments last year. He has played at least 30 every year since 1998.

“It’s because I love the game, and that’s it,” Toledo said. “It took me 10 years to get to this tour ... and I’m going to play as much as I can until my body gives out.”

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A week ago, Billy Andrade had no club deal, no cap deal and no bag deal. He didn’t even have his name on his bag.

“I was basically naked,” Andrade said.

He’s covered now, after signing a deal with Mizuno. Andrade said he was dropped by Titleist, with whom he had been associated since his first year as a pro in 1988.

“Numbers are numbers,” he said. “Some people have to get cut and I got cut.”

It wasn’t easy going it alone, said Andrade, who admitted his endorsement problems affected his play. He hasn’t made a cut in three tournaments.

“My season starts here,” he said.

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Paul Ramina, Riviera’s course superintendent, begins work a little early: 4 a.m.

“We’re starting grooming the course about three hours before the first tee time,” he said.

The greens are single-cut after each round and again in the morning. Ramina said the rough, which is only two inches high, would have been higher, but the weather didn’t cooperate.

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As the first group off Thursday, David Peoples, Tommy Armour III and Miguel Angel Jiminez should have zipped through the first round at Riviera, but that wasn’t the case. The threesome was warned twice about slow play. It didn’t seem to affect Peoples and Armour, who shot 66 and 67, respectively.

“We all made birdies when we were on the clock, so it worked,” said Peoples, who begins the second round in a tie for second place. “I didn’t feel like we were playing slow, but as the first group, we are supposed to set the pace.”

Peoples suggested that Jiminez, who shot 73, might have been to blame for the slow play.

“He’s a little slower than Tommy and I,” Peoples said. “But no offense.”

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Brett Massingham, the pro at Marbella Country Club in San Juan Capistrano who has multiple sclerosis, shot a 10-over 81.

“I couldn’t get caught up in the outcome,” Massingham said. “I needed to get caught up in the emotion. What a thrill for me. Five years ago, I didn’t know if I could get out of bed. And now I get to play in a PGA Tour event?”