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 From left: Champions Tour professionals Craig Stadler, Fuzzy Zoeller and Corey Pavin share some laughs at Tuesday's Shot From the Top (PHOTO: David Kawashima/Toshiba Classic). NEWPORT BEACH—It’s the only event on the Champions Tour — or any golf tour, for that matter — where following through on your golf shot can be fatal. “It’s a hard shot, harder than it looks,” said Fuzzy Zoeller about the 118-yard shot that plays between 85 and 90 yards. “It’s a wild feeling up there. You’re fine taking the club back and hitting the ball. It’s what comes after, that forward feeling going through the ball after you hit it. That’s wild. It takes some getting used to, I’m telling you.” Fewer things in golf are wilder than hitting a ball off the roof of a 16-story building, with a hazy view of Catalina Island in the distance and the clear chatter of Zoeller ringing through your brain as he plays emcee to the festivities. Not that taking a club back 162 feet above your intended target a scant four feet from the edge of the Newport Beach Marriott Hotel & Spa is ever easy. But it’s one of the most unique events in golf, which is why the sixth-annual Shot from the Top, which was held Tuesday, is one of the most popular events on the Champions Tour. And it’s something that adds to the excitement of the Toshiba Classic, which begins Friday, March 5 and concludes Sunday, March 7. The concept, which began in 2005 with four Champions Tour pros and grew into a charitable dynamo for Hoag Hospital Foundation and local Orange County high schools, is as simple as it is spectacular. Champions Tour pros, media and — for the first time in its six-year history — sponsors, hit a golf shot off the roof of the Newport Beach Marriott Hotel & Spa to the second green at Newport Beach Country Club. The shot is 118 yards in length, but because the ball is launched off of a 16-story building, plays between 85 and 90 yards. “That’s probably more nerve-racking than the shot,” said amateur Tom Thomson of Coto de Caza about Zoeller’s banter. Not that it affected Thomson — he hit his shot to an event record 3 feet. “It’s kind of weird standing up there. You feel like if you step off the platform, you’ll fall off the roof,” said Corey Pavin, who made his “Shot from the Top” debut a memorable one by hitting his best of three shots to 6 feet, 8 inches. “You can’t, of course. But the ball stays in the air a long time. I’m not sure if I’ve ever had a ball stay in the air that long.” How about a wedge? Craig Stadler, the third member of the Champions Tour triumvirate to participate, apparently wasn’t thrilled with his closest of three shots landing 19 feet from the pin. So mere moments after his ball landed on the green, Stadler helicoptered his wedge off the roof. His golf glove soon followed. Officials on the ground measured his wedge toss at 153 feet from the pin. “It was all in fun,” Stadler said about a club toss into a safe, empty area that brought raucous laughter to sponsors, tournament officials, media and spectators. “This event is always one of the most fun things we do all year.” The event has undergone several incarnations in an effort to keep it fresh. For the first two years, it featured just media and Champions Tour pros. The Marriott Corporation made charitable donations based on the pros’ shots in relation to the pin. From 2007 to 2009, two members of south Orange County high school golf teams joined members of the media and a select Champions Tour pro. Over those three years, Toshiba America Information Systems donated a half-million dollars worth of laptop computers to the eight high schools competing based on how close their teams’ shots were to the pin. This year, under a new format — the “Charity Challenge” — that involved sponsors pledging money to Hoag Hospital Foundation based on their shots to the green, the Shot from the Top raised $4,100 for Hoag Hospital Foundation, the primary charitable beneficiary of the Toshiba Classic. “That’s the great thing about this,” Zoeller said. “[Executive Tournament Director] Jeff Purser keeps this fresh and makes it new every year. But I’m telling you, that’s one hard shot.” Brian Robin, a senior account executive at Brener Zwikel & Associates, handles public relations for the Champions Tour's Toshiba Classic. ALSO SEE: Breaking down the 2010 Toshiba Classic field John Cook ready for 2010 Champions Tour season Toshiba Classic persists, but Champions Tour stop at Valencia folds Romero wins 2009 Toshiba Classic |
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