We know how Southland golf fans feel about Fred Couples, as attested by the thundering galleries that have followed the World Golf Hall of Famer at Newport Beach Country Club at the Toshiba Classic each year since he joined the Champions Tour in 2010.
We also know how Couples feels about Newport Beach County Club, where he’s a two-time champion and where he’ll defend his 2014 Toshiba title this month. Impressively, he’s also a collective 64-under par in five Toshiba appearances with five top-10 finishes.
And now we know how Couples feels about Newport Beach. Earlier this year he purchased a $3.5 million home in the city’s gated Big Canyon Country Club community, so the cheers should be even louder – if that’s possible – when he’s introduced on the first tee during the Toshiba Classic’s opening round at NBCC on Oct. 30.
This is actually the second time Couples has called Newport Beach home. During the 1980s, when he was on the PGA Tour, he lived for several years near Hoag Memorial Hospital – fittingly, now a tournament charity beneficiary – and at the time was an honorary member at nearby Santa Ana Country Club. He loved the area so much he decided he had to come back. That makes the Toshiba Classic happy, too.
Interestingly, Couples had never played Newport Beach Country Club until his rookie year on the Champions Tour. Didn’t matter. He shot 66-64-65 to win his Toshiba debut in 2010 by four strokes. Since then, he has finished fifth, eighth and second before becoming the Toshiba’s second two-time winner a year ago.
Couples is one of several Champions Tour pros with Orange County ties expected to compete at the 2015 Toshiba, the county’s only professional golf tournament and a senior circuit crown jewel that annually attracts top fields and large crowds.
Other notables with OC ties:
MARK O’MEARA: When he was 12, his family moved to Orange County and settled in a home above the 14th hole at Mission Viejo Country Club, where his father, Robert, was elected the first club president and where Mark worked on the driving range. He later joined the golf team at Mission Viejo High and earned a scholarship at Long Beach State. The rest of the story is well known: U.S. Amateur champion, Masters and British Open champion and Player of the Year in 1998, 16 PGA Tour victories and eventual World Golf Hall of Famer.
ESTEBAN TOLEDO: There might not be a better rags-to-riches story in pro golf. A longtime Irvine resident who still owns a home there, Toledo grew up in poverty in a Mexicali barrio, the youngest of 11 siblings living in a dirt-floor shack. Bullied as a youngster because of a speech impediment, he learned to box to defend himself, had a promising pro boxing career derailed by health problems and later struggled to get established as a pro golfer. Winless in 290 PGA Tour starts, Toledo won twice in his first full season on the Champions Tour in 2013, topping $1 million in a season for the first time at age 50. His dream is to build an orphanage and church in Mexicali.
JOHN COOK: With a home in Corona del Mar about a mile from Newport Beach CC, Cook will have almost as short of a commute as Couples during Toshiba week. During the offseason, Cook tees it up often with friends at Big Canyon and El Niguel Country Club in Laguna Niguel. First played NBCC (then called Irvine Coast Country Club) when his Rancho Palos Verdes high school team played a match against Newport Harbor. He has 10 Champions Tour and 11 PGA Tour victories.
TOMMY ARMOUR III: As a youngster growing up on Desert Inn Golf Club in Las Vegas, TAIII spent summer vacations on Balboa Island in the late 1960s and early 1970s, playing often at Irvine Coast CC and being chauffeured by his mom to junior golf events in the area. Early in his pro career, he returned to Newport Beach CC to play in the Crosby Southern Pro-Am (“Little Crosby”) several times.
PAUL GOYDOS: A longtime resident of Coto de Caza, the former Long Beach State star is in his first full season on the Champions Tour and will be playing in his first Toshiba Classic. He already has two Champions victories, matching his career win total on the PGA Tour.
No offense, Freddie, but Southland golf fans will have plenty of rooting choices in Newport Beach.
