Consolation Prize : Toledo Using Newport Classic as Steppingstone Back to PGA Tour

NEWPORT BEACH —  Make no mistake, Esteban Toledo would rather be in Scottsdale, Ariz., this week.

That’s where the PGA Tour has set up camp for the Phoenix Open, a tournament with a $1.5-million purse and a national television audience. The winner will pocket $270,000.

Compared to those figures, Toledo will be playing for a pittance at the Taco Bell Newport Classic, a $100,000 pro-am Friday and Saturday at the Newport Beach Country Club.

But Toledo insists he’s not a reluctant participant. He is still a bit upset about missing out on a 1997 PGA Tour card by one stroke, but playing in this event, he says, is a nice consolation prize.

“The people treat us so good here,” Toledo said, “and we have such a nice time with the amateurs. That’s more important to me than coming out here to play for the money.”

For 23 years, golf professionals such as Toledo have used this tournament as a stop on the path to the sport’s Holy Grail: full exempt status on the PGA Tour.

Tom Lehman, the tour’s 1996 player of the year, was here three times, most recently in 1991. U.S. Open champion Steve Jones, Payne Stewart and Fuzzy Zoeller all walked these fairways before their names were well-known.

The tournament is akin to baseball’s triple-A level, said Jake Rohrer, chairman of the pro-am.

“In some cases the players have been on the PGA Tour and are trying to get back,” Rohrer said. “Other times, they are just starting to climb up the ladder.”

Toledo, who lives in Costa Mesa, is in the journeyman category. He turned professional in 1986, played on the PGA Tour in 1994 and is trying to grind his way back.

Actually, he believes he should be there now but blames the weather and officials who decided to cancel the final round of December’s PGA Tour qualifying tournament.

Toledo believed he was in a great position despite shooting three-over-par 75 in the fifth round at La Purisima in Lompoc. He knew others would be terribly nervous, especially on the final nine holes, and believed he, as a 10-time veteran of these events, had a substantial advantage.

But he never was able to test his theory. After two days of postponement because of heavy rain, PGA officials decided to use the scores after 90 holes to determine tour qualifiers for 1997.

Toledo was among 12 who missed the cut by one stroke. “It was just bad luck, that’s all I can say,” he said.

Toledo, 34, missed his tour card by one stroke in 1992. In 1993, he made it and played in 28 PGA events during 1994, earning $66,049, a total that sent him back to qualifying school.

Toledo didn’t return to the final qualifying tournament until December, partly because of a shoulder injury.

Last year, he mostly divided his time between the Mexican Tour and the Golden State Tour. He played in four Nike Tour events and missed three cuts, earning $2,455. He said he made more than $50,000 playing golf in 1996.

This year he is fully exempt in the Nike Tour and confident that it’s only a matter of time before he returns to the PGA Tour.

The Newport Classic, therefore, is helping him ease into competition before he begins his Nike schedule. It’s a chance to compete for a nice-sized paycheck in a relaxed environment.

But Toledo, who practices at Newport Beach Country Club, is only a recent convert to this tournament. For years, he says, he turned down invitations to play. “I thought it was just a little pro-am deal,” he said.

When he finally relented in 1994, he discovered it isn’t a typical small-time tournament. Players get the red-carpet treatment, Toledo says, similar to the handling they get on the PGA Tour. “I was missing something all those years,” he said.

He also met his future wife, Colleen Buday, in the clubhouse that year. They were married on New Year’s Eve in Las Vegas.

Notes

R.W. Eaks, a Nike Tour professional and winner of the last two Taco Bell Newport Classics, is scheduled to be back to defend his title. . . . PGA professional Larry Rinker has pulled out of Newport Classic after gaining a spot in the Phoenix Open. Rinker qualified by finishing in a tie for ninth Sunday at the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic. . . . Nine players with Orange County ties are in the professional field at Newport Beach: Dan Bateman (Huntington Beach), Kelly Manos (Los Alamitos High School), Cathy Mockett (Newport Harbor High), Perry Parker (Foothill High, UC Irvine), Dennis Paulson (Costa Mesa High), Kim Saiki (Ocean View High), Muffin Spencer-Devlin (Laguna Beach), Esteban Toledo (Costa Mesa) and Eric Woods (Corona del Mar High, UC Irvine).