Toshiba Classic

Contacts:
Toby Zwikel/Brian Robin/Damian Secore
818/462-5599/5610/5614

Jessica Roswell
949/660-1001
JRoswell@toshibaclassic.com

DEFENDING CHAMPION BERNHARD LANGER JUMP-STARTED HIS INCREDIBLE 2008 SEASON AT THE TOSHIBA CLASSIC

Champions Tour Player, Rookie of the Year Ready to Defend
At Newport Beach Country Club, March 2-8

Newport Beach, Calif., January 26, 2009- Little did Bernhard Langer know it at the time, so wrapped up in the moment was he, but the longest golf day of Langer's career led to one of the most satisfying years in his career.

Langer's "Longest Day" lasted 25 holes and nearly 6 1/2 hours. He not only had to beat one of the best players on the Champions Tour, but he had to beat the sunset and a Newport Beach Country Club course that has a wonderful habit of lulling players to sleep with it's benign length and lack of obvious minefields.

It took seven extra holes, but Langer was up for the task, beating the sunset, beating the determined Jay Haas and beating Newport Beach Country Club for his second Champions Tour victory and first of 2008. It sent Langer on his way to a remarkable season that included three titles, $2,035,073 in earnings and the rare double of Champions Tour Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year honors.

Langer was the only Champions Tour player to clear $2 million in 2008 and for good measure, Langer added the Byron Nelson Award for lowest scoring average (69.65). It was a repeat of the hardware haul Haas engineered in 2007, when he rode a tournament-record 19-under 194 at the Toshiba Classic to Champions Tour Player of the Year and the Byron Nelson Award.

The seven-hole playoff between Langer and Haas was a remarkable display of golf that not only cemented Newport Beach Country Club's reputation as a shotmaker's course, but cemented the Toshiba Classic's reputation as one of the elite tournaments on the Champions Tour. All one has to do is survey a field that as of Jan. 21, amassed 423 PGA TOUR titles and 381 Champions Tour titles. Of those victories, 49 are Champions Tour majors and 44 are PGA TOUR majors.

Langer is included in all of the above categories. A 2002 inductee into the World Golf Hall of Fame, Langer owns only three PGA TOUR titles. But that's a deceptive statistic on two fronts: two of those titles came at Augusta National (1985 and 1993) and Langer owns 58 titles around the world. He came to the Champions Tour late in 2007 and wasted little time winning his first title: capturing the Administaff Small Business Classic in only his fourth start.

That brought him into 2008, where Langer set out goals that included winning a major and dominating a Champions Tour that had been the playground of Haas and Loren Roberts for the last three years. But Langer opened the season in Hawaii with positive vibes.

"I played really well at Turtle Bay, then I really messed it up on Sunday when I shot 76," Langer said. "I could have and should have won that tournament. So that was still bugging me that I didn't pull that off.

"I was glad to see this was my next start. We had one or two weeks off in between to come back and that obviously helped me. Otherwise, it gets into your head if you mess up several weeks in a row, so it certainly helped me a great deal. It got my confidence up and I started playing well from that point on."

Langer played very well at Toshiba, opening with rounds of 65-65 that had players, media and fans thinking a wire-to-wire win was in the offing. But after rounds of 65-69, Haas put himself in position Sunday to throw out another 65 that closed the four-shot gap he faced when he woke up Sunday morning. And it took Langer sinking a 12-foot putt on the 54th hole to force the playoff.

"I was driving the ball exceptionally well that week," Langer said. "I never made any huge mistakes. I played really good golf tee-to-green and holed a few putts here and there. I made only one mistake, on the last day, when I three-putted 14, the short par-4. That was painful."

Not nearly as painful as what Haas would feel almost two hours later. But first, the pair would embark on one of the marathon playoffs the Toshiba Classic is known for. The Toshiba Classic has experienced two nine-hole playoffs (1997 and 2001). For six holes, Haas and Langer traded punches and dodged every hazard Newport Beach Country Club can throw out on its three finishing holes: the long par-4 16th, the treacherous par-3 17th and the risk-reward, par-5 18th.

Twice, Langer had to get up-and-down for par from the right bunker on 17, a task made more difficult by the back-right Sunday pin. Meanwhile, the pair made two full circuits of the three playoff holes before returning to the 18th hole for the fourth time that day.

There, Haas finally blinked, although - true to form - he made Langer nearly flinch in the process. Haas nearly holed out a chip for eagle from behind the 18th green. Then, as the sun dipped over the nearby Pacific, Haas somehow missed a three-foot birdie putt after Langer sank his 3 1/2 foot birdie moments earlier.

"I didn't expect him to miss that putt and I felt back that he did," Langer said. "It shouldn't have ended that way because we played so many shots and played such good golf. It was a long day at that point, with a lot of adrenaline, and I was thrilled to be the winner at the end.

"It was the longest playoff I had ever been involved in: seven holes against a very difficult opponent and friend in Jay. There shouldn't have been a loser. That's really what it was. We both played great enough to win. It was a tussle back and forth and anybody could have won."

The unlikely and exciting ending came just in the nick of time. Champions Tour officials said the players had about 15 minutes of sunlight left - a factor that existed only because Daylight Savings Time began earlier that morning.

For Langer, the wild finish sent him on a wild ride that included two more victories, including a seven-shot romp at the Ginn Championship at Hammock Beach three weeks later, and top-seven finishes in all five Champions Tour majors. Finally breaking down Newport Beach Country Club led to that breakout season Langer established as his goal at the end of 2007.

As Haas discovered, repeating as Toshiba Classic champion is never easy. Not with a marquee field that includes Hall of Famers Tom Watson, Nick Price, Ben Crenshaw, Larry Nelson and Hale Irwin among other major champions.

The $1.7 million Toshiba Classic will award a $255,000 winner's check and will be televised on Golf Channel (tape delay) on Friday, March 6 from 3:30-5:30 p.m. PST and Saturday and Sunday, March 7-8 from 3:30-6 p.m. PST.

Daily tickets are $20 if purchased in advance and are $25 at the gate. Season clubhouse badges providing admission to the grounds and clubhouse for practice rounds and the tournament are $100. All tickets, including corporate ticket packages, can be obtained by calling 949-660-1001 or visiting www.ToshibaClassic.com.

The 2008 Toshiba Classic raised $1 million for Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian and other local Orange County organizations. In its 11-year history, the Toshiba Classic has raised more than $11.1 million for charity, the most on the PGA Champions Tour.

The Toshiba Classic

Hoag Hospital Foundation produces the annual Toshiba Classic. During the last 11 years, the Toshiba Classic has raised more than $11.1 million for charity, the most on the Champions Tour. In the PGA Champions Tour's 29-year history, only nine out of more than 600 tournaments have raised $1 million in net proceeds from an event in a single year. The Toshiba Classic has reached the $1 million mark nine consecutive years out of those 10. Televised to an international audience on Golf Channel, the Toshiba Classic enables millions of viewers to see some of Orange County's greatest attractions. The tournament generates an estimated $20 million in annual economic impact for the county and state. For more information, please call 949/660-1001 or log onto ToshibaClassic.com.

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