Trabuco Hills High Wins "Shot from the Top" Competition
 
Mar. 7, 2007

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif., March 6, 2007 -- Always one of the most popular events during Toshiba Classic week, the third-annual "Shot from the Top" went to the "Hills" this year.

Taking advantage of a new format that featured local high school golfers competing alongside Champions Tour professionals and members of the media, Trabuco Hills High captured the "Shot from the Top" Tuesday morning at the Newport Beach Marriott Hotel & Spa.

For the third consecutive year, players hit their shots from the roof of the Newport Beach Marriott Hotel & Spa to the second green of the Newport Beach Country Club -- 162 feet and 16 stories below. This year, however, the event featured the donation of 150 Toshiba laptop computers (carrying a value close to $200,000) to area high schools by Toshiba America Information Systems.

Twenty of those computers will find their way to Trabuco Hills High, courtesy of Trabuco Hills golfers Ricky Taylor (who hit his closest shot 17 feet from the pin), and Justine Chen (14 feet, 2 inches). The pair teamed with former California Angels pitcher Clyde Wright (13 feet) and pro Andy Bean (7-1) to win the team competition, which was based on a point system geared around the distance of the players' shots relative to the pin.

"It's pretty frightening up there, because I'm afraid of heights," Wright said. "I was shaking up there when I was hitting, so I got lucky I hit a good shot and got close."

Bean's shot was the closest among the pros and the third closest overall, behind GOLF CHANNEL reporter Dave Marr III (3-feet, 10-inches) and Ventura County Star reporter Bob Buttitta (6-5). Marr's shot of 3-10 was not only the closest shot this year, but the closest shot hit in the three-year history of the popular event.

"It's certainly different than most things we do," Bean said about hitting off the roof. "We've played par-3s that were about like this and usually they're quite a bit longer and you're hitting 7-iron to 240 yards. It's different. That's all you can say. It's a unique experience because you get to do it with the high school kids, and then Toshiba donating all those computers for the schools. That's why we're out here."

Each of the pros competed with two of the 12 participating high schools and Bean was so dialed in that he helped Irvine High into a second-place tie with University High of Irvine; each school received 18 computers. Bean (14 feet), Marr (3-10) and Irvine High golfers Daniel Torres (15 feet) and Rachel Johnson (33 feet) took the early lead.

"My teams finished first and second, so that was a good thing," Bean said. "I looked at one of them when I hit it to seven feet and the other team kind of looked at me like, 'I thought you weren't going to do that to us.' "

The second-to-last team to go, University climbed into a second-place tie behind the shots of pro Dave Stockton (7-3), University High golfers Ani Gulugian (20-3) and Scott Sexton (21-5) and 12-year-old Bryan Eidsaune, a Make-a-Wish Foundation wish kid from Placentia, Calif., who parked his shot 9 feet, 10 inches from the pin.

Eidsaune was diagnosed with Burkitt's Lymphoma, a cancer so extremely rare that only 100 cases are diagnosed worldwide each year. He hit six balls from the roof, with two of the six finding the green. That 9-foot, 10-inch shot he hit on behalf of the University High team was closer than four of the six participating pros -- including Craig Stadler, Scott Simpson and the last two winners of the Toshiba Classic: Mark Johnson (2005) and Brad Bryant (2006).

Other participating high schools -- which all received laptop computers from Toshiba America Information Systems -- included Corona del Mar High, Costa Mesa High, El Toro High, Estancia High, Laguna Hills High, Mission Viejo High, Newport Harbor High, Northwood High and Woodbridge High.