Hoag Classic worth the trip to Newport Beach for longtime volunteer
- Share via
Dick Yuhnke knows that most of the work that goes into the Hoag Classic golf tournament happens long before the first ball is struck.
Still, there is something satisfying about arriving at the Newport Beach Country Club in time for tournament week and seeing dozens of people he knows by name.
Yuhnke, 77, planned to arrive on a flight from his residence in Oklahoma with his wife Linda on Friday.
He’s still at it, volunteering with the Hoag Classic for the 27th time.
The three-day tournament starts Friday, March 21, preceded by the first-ever Newport Beach Celebrity Classic on Sunday and the pro-am event on Wednesday and Thursday.
This is Yuhnke’s 10th time working with his volunteer co-chairman, Brian Mericle, at the PGA Tour Champions event. Yuhnke said Mericle is now arguably his best friend.
“We know the golf tournament world frontward and backward, and we like what the Hoag represents,” Yuhnke said. “It’s one of the tournaments on the Champions Tour. I enjoy the people, and I enjoy the challenge of putting it together and making it a smooth-running operation.”
He worked at Rockwell International, which became Boeing, in the Anaheim area until his retirement in 2005. A few years later, Yuhnke moved to Oklahoma to be with his since deceased father, Charlie, who was 93 at the time.
Yet he kept volunteering with the Hoag Classic, formerly known as the Toshiba Classic, the whole time. He said he counts former longtime tournament director Jeff Purser as a good friend.
Yuhnke was also a longtime volunteer at the Nissan Open, now called the Genesis Invitational, at Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, from 1989 to 2017.
The volunteer chairman has duties including handling volunteer registration, as well as receiving feedback from the many tournament committees in the weeks following the tournament.
This Saturday, Yuhnke plans for a long day on the course, as organizers get ready for Sunday’s first-ever Newport Beach Celebrity Classic, which will be a fundraiser for Southern California fire relief efforts. NFL stars Josh Allen, Saquon Barkley and Dak Prescott are some of the current players confirmed for the tournament, along with Pro Football Hall of Famers Eric Dickerson and Marshall Faulk and many other standouts.
Yuhnke’s wife also volunteers at the tournament, in admissions, and will call at the front of the golf course.
He said he remembers the first time the tournament became the first to raise $1 million for charity in a single year, in 2000.
“Then, to do it 20 times in a row was even more special,” he said. “That gives you a good feeling, to be a part of something like that … [All tournaments] have something unique. But I’m not working at any of those other ones, and I’m still working at this one.”
It’s well worth the flight from Oklahoma.
Padraig Harrington seeks to defend Hoag Classic title
The Hoag Classic boasts an elite field of Champions Tour golfers, as always.
Padraig Harrington is the defending champion, after making an 8-foot birdie putt on No. 18 last year.
“Newport Beach Country Club is an old school-style golf course, which allows me to hit driver off almost every tee,” said Harrington, 53. “In fact, last season’s tournament was the first where I have hit a driver off the tee on every par-4 and par-5 tee during a round. I made hard work of winning the event last year with two double bogeys in the final round, but managed to birdie the last two holes.”
There are four players who have won the Hoag Classic twice — Hale Irwin, Fred Couples, Jay Haas and Ernie Els — but no one has ever won it back-to-back years.
Stewart Cink is one newcomer to Newport Beach who will be eager to compete.
Cink, 51, will be seeking his second PGA Tour Champions title and a cut of the $2-million purse. He has eight PGA Tour wins, including the Open Championship in 2009.
“In all of the traveling that I’ve done over the years, surprisingly, Orange County is one of the areas that I’ve visited the fewest,” said Cink, who lives in Atlanta. “I know very little about the area, other than what I’ve heard. Newport Beach and the community has a tremendous reputation around the world, so I’m no stranger to that, but as far as the specifics, I’ve not spent any time in this area. I’m looking forward to it.”
One of the course’s characteristics are the Poa annua grass greens.
“People like me, who grew up on the East Coast, are like, ‘What the heck is this stuff?’” Cink said. “It can be challenging, but that’s great. It’s not that anybody doesn’t like it, but it’s fun for me to play on something different and challenge yourself. I’ve had wins on Poa annua, and I’ve played terrible on Poa annua. When you’ve played as many golf tournaments as all of us out here have, you’ve seen it all.”
