By D.A. Weibring
Last week we played the Toshiba Open at Newport Beach. I had high expectations for the week and was disappointed when I finished tied for 39th. We played a great classic golf course that really has stood the test of time. In the 70s, when I was first on Tour, we played the "Little Crosby" on the same course. The nickname came about because it was played opposite the Pebble Beach tournament, but for the last twenty years the course has hosted a Champions Tour event.
Jay Haas, who leads the Charles Schwab Cup standings, won the tournament shooting 19 under par. He played outstanding tee-to-green and only made one bogey for the entire week. Just to show the contrast, Jay shot 19 under and made one bogey; I shot 4 under and made 15 birdies and an eagle. If I would have played with the same efficiency as Jay, I might have been in the mix coming down the stretch.
It was a week where I didn't putt very well, and I have tried to do something about it in the past couple of days. I got a chance to visit with former Ryder Cup captain, PGA and Champions Tour player Dave Stockton. Dave has always been known as a great putter and I wanted to get in his head a little bit. I also visited with Andy North, former two-time US Open champion and another great putter.
A quick sidebar about how players help each other and share thoughts; we did a clinic this past Monday with Ben Crenshaw, Morris Hatalsky and Loren Roberts. It was interesting that after the clinic Ben, Loren, Morris and I were discussing how each of us had said things that the other hadn't heard before. So you never get too old to share information and help each other and that really happens every week on every tour. It's one of the great things about golf.
I'm probably considered a pretty good putter by my peers, but we all have stretches where we go up and down. Fortunately, my dad gave me a great foundation, and I have built on that foundation with the help of Dave Plez and more recently Marius Filtmalter the putting director at our D.A.'s Spring Creek Golf, but you can certainly blend too many concepts. I needed to get back to some basics, so I worked with Dave Monday.
I'm hoping for the best as we move about an hour north of L.A. to Valencia and the AT&T Champions Classic. It's a really good golf course. I finished second there a couple of years ago and had a chance to tie Des Smyth on the last hole. A bit of trivia for you, one year the L.A. Open was played in Valencia and Tiger Woods lost to Billy Mayfair in a playoff. Tiger doesn't lose too many of those.
I'm hoping I can incorporate some of these new putting thoughts and clean my brain out a little bit and be positive at this week's event. It's a really good golf course that is demanding off the tee, presents challenging long iron play and a lot of contour to the greens. Once again, the contour of the greens and the California bent grass come into play. Because of the coolness out here, the greens have a lot of grain and they can get a little bumpy. It's just the nature of greens in cool temperatures, but it's also means you really have to be confident on the greens to have a good week, which I hope I can do.
