Senior PGA Tour Event to Remain in County

NEWPORT BEACH — The uncertainty over the location and status of the 1998 Toshiba Senior Classic will be eliminated this morning at a news conference at Newport Beach Country Club.

Toshiba is expected to announce that the Senior PGA Tour event will return in March to Newport Beach Country Club, which has hosted the tournament for two years.

Toshiba also will introduce a new event manager and charity beneficiary. Toshiba also will announce donations to the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Orange County, the National Dyslexia Research Foundation and the Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Assn.--the designated charities of the 1997 event.

The new beneficiary is expected to be the Hoag Hospital Foundation, the fund-raising arm of Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in Newport Beach. The 552 Club, which for the last 23 winters has run a pro-am tournament at Newport Beach Country Club to raise money for the foundation, is expected to take over as the manager of the senior tournament.

The Taco Bell Newport Classic, which has raised $1.2 million for Hoag the last five years, will cease to exist.

Hoag and Toshiba representatives declined to comment Wednesday.

The tournament’s location has been in doubt since May after Newport Beach broke off negotiations for a new contract with the company that managed the event for Toshiba.

Still uncertain, however, is the status of the contract between Toshiba and International Sports & Event Marketing, which managed the 1996 and 1997 Toshiba Senior Classic events. ISM has a contract with Toshiba to run the $1 million event through 2000.

In May, ISM received a letter from International Bay Clubs Inc., owner of Newport Beach Country Club, that it was not welcome to return, largely because of a dispute over a food and beverage bill. The country club has made it clear from the beginning that it wants to keep the tournament, but only if ISM is not involved.