Hoch on a roll heading into Newport Beach

His streak isn’t quite as long as Tiger Woods’, nor is it as well known, but that doesn’t make Scott Hoch any less of a marked man as the Toshiba Classic gets underway today at Newport Beach Country Club.

Hoch has won the last two Champions Tour events, claiming a playoff victory Feb. 17 at the ACE Group Classic and a one-shot victory Feb. 10 at the Allianz Championship.

But Hoch, 52, in his second full season on the Champions Tour, is well aware that extending his streak to three won’t be easy.

“It’s not going to happen that often unless your name starts with a T and ends with an R,” he said. “Hopefully when I go out there, I won’t put any pressure on myself to do that.”

Adding to the difficulty is a strong field that includes 35 of the top 40 players from last season’s money list, 10 members of the World Golf Hall of Fame and six previous Toshiba Classic champions.

But getting three consecutive victories is not unprecedented on the Champions Tour. Chi Chi Rodriguez won four in a row in 1987 -- the tour record. In 2006, Loren Roberts and Jay Haas won three in a row.

Add in the traditional layout that Hoch says fits his game and he has to be considered among a handful of favorites.

“When he has two in a row, yeah, I think he probably is a target right now,” said Fred Funk, who won the season-opening MasterCard Championship.

Hoch finished 22nd on the 2007 money list and had one victory and six top-10 finishes in his first full season on tour. But he had a less-than-stellar start to the 2008 season, finishing 36th and tied for 44th in the first two events.

“I was pretty depressed with my game because I couldn’t understand how I could play that poorly,” he said.

A visit to his swing coach proved beneficial.

Hoch discovered that his putting stroke had gone awry. He got on a computerized video machine that dissected his stroke and determined that he was using the wrong putter.

He switched to a center-shafted model and started making more putts. His last six rounds have been 67, 67, 68, 68, 66 and 68.

“When you don’t putt good, it puts pressure on the other parts of your game,” Hoch said. “So I think that had a lot to do with why I didn’t play well.”

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Two-time Toshiba Classic champion Hale Irwin, the Champions Tour career money leader, withdrew Thursday after his mother died in Colorado.

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peter.yoon@latimes.com