Field takes center stage

NEWPORT BEACH — Fred Couples, Tom Watson, Corey Pavin, Bernhard Langer, Tom Lehman, Tommy Armour III, Fred Funk, Mark O’Meara. These are some of the reasons why many are calling this year’s Toshiba Classic the best in its 16-year-history.

If rain doesn’t stop play, this just might be Sweet 16 for the Toshiba Classic, which starts Friday at Newport Beach Country Club.

Every year there’s hype about the field in the Classic, but this year there seems to be a special buzz. If anything, there are credentials to back it up.

As for marquee names, there are 11 World Golf Hall of Famers here, and 23 PGA Tour major champions.

With regard to the Champions Tour – for golfers 50 and older – there will be the best of the best on hand this weekend.

“Take a look at the pro-am list [for Thursday], and any sponsor in the world would love to have that,” said Watson, a two-time Masters champion and a 39-time PGA Tour winner. “I don’t care if it’s on the [PGA] Tour or [Champions] Tour. You take a look at the people playing the pro-am [Thursday], the names, it’s a great, great field, terrific field.”

Watson, 60, who was the runner-up in last year’s British Open, opened the year with a victory in the Mitsubishi Electric at Hualalia, Hawaii on Jan. 24, edging Couples by a stroke. Couples, 50, is the “rookie” to watch for this weekend.

Many have been calling Couples the one to beat on the Champions Tour, and he’s thought of as a favorite here to win the $255,500 winner’s check.

“Fred Couples is the favorite,” Watson said somewhat jokingly so as to steer high expectations from himself. “I knew Freddie would come out here and do very, very well. He controls his game very well, and he is so long that he doesn’t have to compete against those long kids out there. He can compete against us short popcorners on this tour.

“Playing with him in the Skins Game in Hawaii, he was out-driving me 40 or 50 yards. I may have been a little bit straighter than he was, but he can still drive the ball where he is supposed to. I suspect he will do very well this week, too.”

Couples, the captain of the victorious 2009 Presidents Cup team, expects to do well. He’s already won this year. He held off Armour III to win the ACE Group Classic in Naples, Fla., on Feb. 14. And, he finished tied for 14th in the Waste Management Phoenix Open on the PGA Tour last week.

“My expectations are to play well,” said Couples, whose group had the lowest score in the pro-am Thursday. “Even at 49 or 50 on the [PGA] Tour, my expectations are to play well. Now, am I going to win on the [PGA] Tour? You know I had a couple of chances last year. Am I going to win [on the Champions Tour]? I just did, and I think I will win more.”

Langer, the 2008 Classic champion, beat part-time Corona del Mar resident John Cook in a one-hole playoff at the Allianz Championship in Boca Raton, Fla., on Feb. 21.

Both enter the field with high expectations, yet the spotlight seems to be on Couples.

“You know that when Fred is in the field, he is the guy, now the guy to beat,” Cook said. “Our tour was doing well, and now it’s going to even do better.”