It has been stated many times on these pages that golf is the sporting world”s ultimate meritocracy. Your successes as well as failures are solidly determined upon your own abilities and performances. Golfers don”t rely upon blockers to spring them for big gains, outstanding passes from the point guard for that monster dunk or, for that matter, teammates who intentionally spin out to get you into the Chase. When a linkster shoots 67, it”s all on the golfer, just as he or she is equally responsible for the 76 that might be shot the following day.
There are many different paths that professional golfers take to reach that pinnacle of success. The vast majority of golfing success stories generally fit a pattern with junior golf achievements, college golf accolades and professional victories. That”s the way that golfers from Jack Nicklaus through Tiger Woods have done it during the game”s modern era. Yet sometimes you can make it in spite of the fact that you grew up in an impoverished background, excelled at another sport until Third World surgery derailed you, and then floundered on the Golden State Tour and other mini-tours.
This past Tuesday, Esteban Toledo celebrated his 51st birthday. Just last Sunday, Toledo shot a final-round 3-under-par 69 to finish at 5-under-par in the Champions Tour”s Montreal Championship. Toledo had to wait around for quite a bit of time while golfers of note such as Kenny Perry, Duffy Waldorf and David Frost were still out on the course. Yet when the dust settled, Toledo found himself tied atop the Montreal leader board alongside Perry, the reigning Senior Players champion and the U.S. Senior Open winner. On the third playoff hole, Toledo chipped in for birdie and won his second senior title of the year, putting him in the driver”s seat for Champions Tour rookie of the year honors. Toledo didn”t exactly get to this point in time by following the blueprint laid out by Jack, Tiger and, for that matter, Kenny Perry.
Born 51 years ago in Mexicali, Mexico, Toledo was the youngest of 11 children. His childhood home had no electricity, no plumbing and just dirt floors. The one break he did catch was that his home was within walking distance of Mexicali Country Club. As a youngster, he sold used golf balls to the wealthy members. When he got a little older, Esteban got a job caddying and the picking up the driving range.
However, his real athletic accomplishments were in the world of boxing. He turned pro as a teenager and had early success, amassing a 16-1 record until he had to walk away from the sport following botched appendectomy surgery. The long recovery period knocked him out of the ring. Following an extended period of time, Toledo returned to the golf course, went back to the caddie shack and spent a lot of time working on his game. However, Mexico was a social caste system for golfers in the 1980s. Tournaments were open to country club members, not caddies. Regardless of his ability level, Esteban had nowhere to play or compete.
Then he caught his big break. An American couple, Jon and Rita Minnis, vacationed in Mexicali. They played golf several times and were impressed with the young man who put in an extraordinary amount of time hitting balls on the range. When Jon Minnis heard Toledo”s story, he offered to allow Esteban to move to his home in Milpitas, just north of San Jose. He would play golf and the Minnis family would financially support him. He would work full-time on his game at the ultra-hilly Summit Pointe Golf Course.
The following year, as a 24-year-old, Toledo turned professional and began competing on the minor league Golden State Tour. He played and competed against the likes of future PGA Tour pros Scott McCarron, Jeff Wilson and Keith and David Sutherland. He even got paired with this columnist in one-day Golden State Tour events at LaContenta and Micke Grove in the late 1980s.
Toledo played anywhere and everywhere during that time. He represented Mexico in the World Cup on six occasions between 1992 and 2006. He won eight times on the Mexican PGA Tour from 1995 through the following decade. He spent the majority of his time on the AAA-level Hogan Tour, Nike Tour and Nationwide Tour. In 2005 he won the Lake Erie Classic on the Nationwide Tour. He got through Q School in 1994, 1997 and 2004 and spent time on the big tour. He had a pair of runner-up finishes to his name at the B.C. Open and the Buick Open. He never got into the Masters and the PGA, played in two U.S. Opens and one British Open. Toledo finished 34th in the 1999 U.S. Open and 43rd in the 2002 British Open.
With that sort of limited background, Toledo turned 50 last September and turned in his paperwork for Senior Q School. The top five finishers at Senior Q are fully exempt while the next five get a partial exemption, relying upon top players to withdraw to get a spot. Esteban finished seventh at Senior Q last December. The good news was that two of the top five, Northern Californian Jeff Brehaut and John Riegger, wouldn”t turn 50 until mid-June. For the first five months of the Senior Tour season, Toledo would have top-five exempt status. Catching lightning in a bottle, Esteban shot a final-round 67 to finish in a three-way tie at the Insperity Championship alongside Mike Geddes and Gene Sauers. He prevailed on the third playoff hole for the win. He was the first Mexican-born golfer to win on the Senior Tour (Lee Trevino was born in El Paso) and his win occurred on May 5 (Cinco de Mayo).
With his two senior wins, Esteban has had quite a year. He has seven top-10 finishes, has made 18 of 19 cuts, and has won $1,060,822 so far this year. He is 11th in Schwab Cup points and will make it into the field for the Champions Tour finale at Harding Park in November.
Esteban Toledo has had quite a golfing journey, from Motel 6s, Sizzler Steakhouses and mini-tour pairings with John Berry to overtime victories on the Champions Tour, birdie chip-ins against Kenny Perry, $1 million in the bank, and a home alongside The Woodlands in Texas. Yes, Esteban Toledo has come a long way from that day at the 1998 Los Angeles Open when the security guard refused his entry into the player”s locker room, directing him to the caddie yard instead. Esteban Toledo deserves all these recent highlights because he had the determination, the desire, the ability and a bit of luck in his journey to find golfing success.
