Toshiba team preps tourney

A small army of volunteers descended upon Newport Beach Country Club on Saturday to prepare for the Toshiba Classic golf tournament, which begins Monday.

“What you do here reflects on the success of the event,” tournament chairman Ira Garbutt told volunteers gathered for an orientation Saturday.

The seven-day Champions Tour (players 50 and over) event, in its 16th year, generates millions of dollars for the local economy and raises about $1 million each year for Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian.

Much of the success of the event depends on people who give their time to help out with the event, volunteer chairman Brian Horn said.

Anywhere from 800 to 1,000 people volunteer for the tournament each year to do everything from work as a cashier to score keeping.

Horn, who has been volunteering his time with the tournament for the past 12 years, manages the volunteers from a portable trailer on the grounds of the country club.

“It’s a little like running a company with 900 employees for a week,” Horn said.

Newport Beach resident Shirley Pobe, 81, has been volunteers her time at local golf tournaments to raise money for Hoag Hospital since 1972.

She was a walking scorekeeper for 20 years for Toshiba, and its preceding tournaments, until it got too strenuous for her about nine years ago.

Now she helps hand out uniforms to the other volunteers.

“It keeps me going, and I love the people,” Pobe said.

Aside from the more than $12 million the Toshiba tournament has raised for Hoag over its 13-year history with the hospital, the event also pumps money into the local economy.

The throngs of television crews, Champions Tour golfers, their families, and golf enthusiasts help book about 3,000 hotel rooms in the local area during the tournament, Toshiba Classic director Jeff Purser said.

“It’s a $6-million business that happens to be for profit, but those profits happen to be for charity,” Purser said. “It also creates jobs and spending, which is good for the community.”

The event gave the local economy a $27.7-million boost in 2008 alone, according to a study by the Economic Research Associates, a Los Angeles-based consulting firm.