Senior Classic: Irwin shoots for his third straight win in Las Vegas

After dominating the Senior PGA Tour the past two years, Hale Irwin finally has found some competition.

If Irwin is to become the first player to win three consecutive Las Vegas Senior Classic titles, he is going to have to go through Bruce Fleisher and Allen Doyle to do so.

Where Irwin and Gil Morgan were the dominant forces on the Senior Tour for two seasons, tour newcomers Fleisher and Doyle -- a pair of 50-year-olds -- have assumed those spots in 1999.

Fleisher comes into this week's $1.4 million Las Vegas Senior Classic with three wins and leading the Seniors in earnings; Doyle has two wins and is second on the money list.

Even Irwin, who turns 54 next month, said he realized he couldn't keep up his torrid pace of 1997-98, when he won 16 tournaments and posted 12 second- or third-place finishes.

"I could never have predicted something like that," Irwin said. "I had glimpses of that success on the PGA Tour back in the late '70s. But did any of it reach the level of play, the level of ball-striking that I had the last two years? Probably not.

"I did technically -- swing-wise, execution-wise, result-wise -- as good as I have ever done."

During that span, Irwin became only the third player to repeat as Las Vegas Senior Classic champion, winning the event in both 1997 and 1998.

While nobody is ruling out Irwin as he attempts this week to become the first player to three-peat in Las Vegas -- especially in light of his win Sunday in the Nationwide Championship -- he might not be considered the favorite to win the 14th annual tournament.

Fleisher comes to Las Vegas armed with back-to-back wins in February and a victory last month at The Home Depot Invitational in North Carolina; Doyle earned his first win of the season back in February and added his second title last month in the PGA Seniors' Championship in Florida.

Irwin, on the other hand, has played in only eight of the 12 official events this season and, with one win, is ranked in the top 10 in earnings with $390,860 -- more than $470,000 behind Fleisher.

Irwin, Fleisher and Doyle will be among the 78 professionals competing for the $210,000 first prize in the Las Vegas Senior Classic, which runs Thursday through Sunday.

Half the professionals will alternate between the Tournament Players Club at Summerlin and the TPC at The Canyons Thursday and Friday and the final two rounds will be played at the TPC at Summerlin.

For the second consecutive year, the Las Vegas Senior Classic will feature an expanded field -- up from 56 players in 1997 -- playing 72 holes. For the first 12 years of its existence, the LVSC played with a limited field of 56 professionals playing 54 holes.

It also marks the third year the tournament will utilize the TPC at The Canyons. The tournament moved to the TPC at Summerlin in 1994 following an eight-year run at the Desert Inn Golf Club, then used the TPC at The Canyons for one year (1997) before the two-course format was instituted.

Although he hasn't won since last October and comes into this tournament ranked outside the top 30 in earnings, Las Vegas resident Jim Colbert also has to be lumped into the "contenders" category this week.

Colbert, a two-time winner of the LVSC (1995 and '96), is the all-time leading money winner in tournament history with $484,002.

Whenever the Senior PGA Tour rolls into Las Vegas, Colbert said he believes he has a chance to win.

"I'm looking forward to going back to Summerlin and the TPC," Colbert said. "It's not a secret that I prefer that golf course because I've had a lot of success there and I've played it a lot.

"I think it's a great situation to be playing both golf courses, playing for four days and having the weekend totally at Summerlin -- I think it's good for everybody."

Play will begin at 7:30 a.m. at both courses on Thursday and Friday. Saturday's third round will begin at 9 a.m. and Friday's final round is scheduled to begin at approximately 7:30 a.m.

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