COURSE REVIEWS

Doyle Wins Toshiba Classic From The Clubhouse

Rain forces cancellation of final round,
giving Senior Tour sophomore the title

By Bob Buttitta,
GolfCalifornia.com Course Reviewer

 

	Allen Doyle

NEWPORT BEACH - Heavy rains from Saturday night through mid-morning Sunday left the Newport Beach Country Club golf course unplayable, forcing cancellation of the final round of the Toshiba Senior Classic and giving Allen Doyle the title.

Doyle's two round total of 6-under, was one stroke better than Howard Twitty and Jim Thorpe. Doyle earned $195,000 for the win, while Twitty and Thorpe were awarded $104,000 each for tying for second.

Following Saturday's second round, Doyle said as he played the final hole he knew there was a chance to that weather might cause a problem for the final round.

"When I woke up this morning and heard the forecast I thought there was a chance it would be canceled but we have no control over that," Doyle said. "You expect that the front will pass and they will get the course in shape to play but they couldn't. It was just too wet.

"It's a shame. I feel sorry for the fans and the sponsors. The players don't like when this happens but you deal with it. When I looked at the leaderboard yesterday I felt if I could get to three or four under I would be right in it. When I got there, I thought if I could get one or two more strokes I'd be in real good shape."

He was right, although Twitty came within a whisker of tying him at 6-under but his birdie putt rolled just by the cup.

"It was less than an inch from going in" Twitty said. "As I was getting ready to hit the putt, in the back of my mind I knew there was a possibility that we might not play today. I tried as hard as I could to make the putt.

"But you can look back over the entire 36 holes and think about things you could have done. I hit a good putt and I'm not disappointed. I'm happy with the way I played. I put myself in contention to win and that's all you can ask."

In anticipation of the rain, tournament officials had moved the starting times up for Sunday's final round. But play never did get started. There were several delays before it was decided at 8:30 PST that the course was never going to be ready for play and it was canceled.

Bruce Sudderth, assistant tournament director for the Senior PGA Tour, said they were hoping to get a break between storms that would have allowed the tournament to be finished but the break never came.

"All the greens were under water and we had three holes, including 18, that completely under water," Sudderth said. "The Senior Tour does not play on Monday so we don't start a round unless we are reasonably sure we can finish it.

"We looked on the radar screen and there is me rain coming so we had no choice. Had we had a playoff situation we would have found a par-3 hole, probably 17, that we could have gotten ready for play."

Doyle, who won for the fifth time in a little over a year on the Senior PGA Tour, said he's thrilled with the victory. "It's a great old course and a great win for me," Doyle said.

A Learning Experience

As he stood waiting to tee off in Saturday's second round of the Toshiba Senior Classic, no one could have blamed Roy Vucinich if he was a little more nervous than fellow competitors Dave Eichelberger and Larry Nelson.

Vucinich, who was a club professional at Allegheny Country Club just outside of Pittsburgh for 27-years, is in seeing his first full-time tour of duty on the Senior Tour, or for that matter any tour. He earned his tour card by finishing sixth at qualifying school in December and Saturday was the first time he had ever played in the final group of the day in a tournament of any note.

After firing an opening round 5-under, 66 and tying Dave Eichelberger for the lead, Vucinich said he was excited about the chance to experience the pressure of being the player everyone was trying to catch.

"With a career was young as mine, I've never led a tournament of this size so I hope to learn from the experience," Vucinich said. "Playing in the lead group, in front of a large crowd, I'm planning on using it as a stepping stone. I hope to play decent."

• Preview: Toshiba Senior Classic • First Round: Toshiba Senior Classic • Second Round: Toshiba Senior Classic • Past GolfCalifornia.com course reviews

Vucinich did just that, firing a 1-over 72, leaving him at 4-under par for the event. Had Sunday's final round not been canceled Vucinich would have started the day just two strokes behind winner Allen Doyle. As it is, he finished alone in fourth place, earning $78,000 in the process, his largest check by far on tour..

Dad Still Has The Edge

Drew and Josh Nelson are good young golfers. Drew Nelson plays on the Hooters Tour while his younger brother Josh is a junior at the University of Auburn where he is one of the team's best players. Both players hope to one day be members of the PGA Tour.

Both players have first hand knowledge of how difficult that goal will be to achieve having grown up watching their father Larry Nelson make his living on the PGA Tour.

Larry Nelson has 10 PGA victories to his credit and earned nearly $4 million on the PGA Tour before joining the senior circuit in 1997. So it's not hard to understand why Drew and Larry get a little "tight" when they play their father in a friendly game of golf. Both have all the tools physical tools needed to beat their dad, they just usually don't.

"Both of them want to beat me in the worst way," Larry Nelson said. "Nothing satisfies them more than beating me, they just haven't done it much."

"They seem to get a little uptight when they play me," Nelson said. "I tell them if they can learn to relax when they play me, he pressure of playing on tour will be a piece of cake."

Nelson is close with both sons. Drew caddies for him during the early part of the year, including this week's Toshiba Senior Classic, and when he leaves for the Hooters Tour, Josh comes out in the Summer to caddie for dad.

"It's real nice having the chance to spend time with both of them," Nelson said. "They're fine young men."

The Next Tiger?

When he was just 3-years-old, Dillon Curtis watched a golf tournament with his father Robbie Curtis and when it was over, the youngster told his dad that he wanted to give the sport a try.

Four years later, Dillon is an accomplished player, possessing a smooth swing that allows him to regularly beat his father on executive courses they play together. He even has a hole-in-one to his credit.

"He's just a natural," Robbie Curtis said of his son. "I've had people tell me he has a perfect golf swing. And he just loves it. The first thing he asks me every morning is if he can play golf that day."

On Friday, Dillon was at the Toshiba Senior Classic in Newport Beach, California taking part in another part of golf he enjoys, collecting autographs. Looking like a mini-version of the late Payne Stewart, complete with knickers, Dillon waited patiently to get autographs of players he's only heard about in books.

"He's very interested in the history of the game," his father said. "He wants to know all about the great players of the past like Ben Hogan and Arnold Palmer."

Dillon got a chance to meet Palmer at the Toshiba Classic, in fact, he was able to secure Palmer's signature on a Wheaties Box. The youngster was so excited about meeting the legendary Palmer that he asked his dad if they could call his mom on the cell phone and tell her.

He couldn't hide his excitement as he recounted the meeting to his mom over the phone and then filled her in on the other players he had met. Hubert Green gave him a golf glove and Chi Chi Rodriguez gave him a golf ball.

"I like meeting the players," Dillon said. "I've met John Daly, David Duval, Gary McCord and Tiger Woods."

Dillon got Tiger's autograph at the recent Nissan Los Angeles Open. He asked him before the round and Tiger told him he would sign after the round. After not playing well, Tiger turned down most requests from fans for autographs, but when Dillon reminded him that he promised he would sign before the round - Woods stopped and gave him the autograph.

Robbie Curtis said he's pleased that his son has taken to golf because he feels it is a sport that has a lot to offer. "It teaches you to about following the rules and etiquette, it's a great game. It's great being able to share it with him."

At the Nissan L.A. Open, Dillon was interviews by a local television station. There was only one problem, it was during a time he was supposed to be in school and his principal saw it. The principal called Dillon's parents and told them they shouldn't take him out of school for a golf tournament.

So how come Dillon and his dad were the Toshiba Classic on Friday? "It's possibly a once in a lifetime opportunity," Robbie Curtis said. "This is the first and maybe only time Arnold Palmer plays here. I didn't want him to miss it."

Was it worth it? Judging by the smile on Dillon face after meeting Palmer, one would have to say, yes.