Toshiba Senior Classic Golf: Fairways and Green

Richard Dunn

NEWPORT BEACH - Hubert Green would like to make an appointment late

Sunday afternoon in the media center.

“I’ll see ya in your office later this week,” a smiling Green said as

he walked away after an interview. “But I have to play good golf to get

there, don’t I?”

Indeed, members of the Senior PGA Tour, who play in the Toshiba Senior

Classic this week at Newport Beach Country Club, must contend or lead the

golf tournament to get an invite to the media center’s conference room,

where lights, cameras and reporters with notebooks are eagerly awaiting

to question their subject.

Green, who has played in every Toshiba event since he became eligible

in 1997 and is 12th on the tournament’s all-time money list, battled Hale

Irwin in a wild Sunday finish at Newport Beach in 1998.

Green, however, finished second as Irwin shot a course-record 62 in

the final round and benefited from the Famous Bunker Rake at No. 17,

which stopped Irwin’s tee shot from rolling in the water and allowed him

to get up and down for par in one of the most dramatic moments in Toshiba

Classic history.

“But two weeks later I beat Irwin in Birmingham (Ala., at the Bruno’s

Memorial Classic),” Green said. “He won here, but I beat him there, and I

didn’t have shots bounce off any rakes. But Hale’s a great player and

great players get great breaks. Life goes on.”

At 55, Green is beginning to enter the so-called drop-off period for

age on the Senior PGA Tour, where most of the winners are 55 and younger.

“To me, it’s just unbelievable that I’m even playing golf at 55 years

of age and that I’ve never had a real job in my life, not that I’m

looking for one,” Green said. “I’m very happy being unemployable.”

Green, who won two Senior Tour titles in 2000 and teamed with Gil

Morgan for the Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf crown in 1999, defeated

Irwin by one stroke to claim his first Senior Tour title at the 1998

Bruno’s Memorial Classic.

But, as Green prepares for the eighth annual Toshiba Senior Classic

this weekend and his sixth straight appearance in the Newport Beach

event, he can’t escape his place in Toshiba lore.

You might remember him leading the tournament by one stroke heading to

the par-3 17, where he left an uphill par putt short and took a bogey.

Irwin tied him at 17 and birdied 18 to win the tournament, while setting

a course record.

“It was almost there,” Green said of his putt from about five feet.

During his PGA Tour career, Green posted 19 victories, including the

1977 U.S. Open Championship and 1985 PGA Championship. He was voted the

1971 PGA Tour Rookie of the Year.