Esteban Toledo was among the leaders at the inaugural Sony Open in Hawaii in 1999 after opening with a 65. A national writer for a national magazine asked Toledo what he would do if he won on the PGA Tour for the first time.

Toledo, then 36 and playing the third of what would be eight winless PGA Tour seasons, looked up shyly and said simply: "Quit."

The national writer was incredulous. He followed up with a series of questions more condescending by the moment, questioning the story of Toledo’s background and how he could leave a game so lucrative.

Toledo was absolutely serious. Boxing was his passion, but golf became his business. He learned to play while working at a driving range. He fished golf balls out of a pond at Mexicali Country Club in Baja, California and sold them to help his parents and 11 siblings, who lived in a two-bedroom house with no plumbing and dirt floors.

"I thought then that the greatest thing would be to win on the PGA Tour, quit and write a book," recalls Toledo, here to play in his first Pacific Links Hawaii Championship at Kapolei. "I wanted to open a driving range in Mexico and hang out with my family."

Now, he figures it was fate he never won on that tour, coming in second twice and earning $90,000 of his career $3.7 million with Top-20 finishes at Waialae Country Club in 1999 and 2000.

He captured a Web.com title in 2005, then broke through again on the Champions Tour — fittingly this Cinco de Mayo, at the Insperity Championship. Toledo, a rookie, followed that up with another playoff win at the Montreal Championship at the last tour stop.

"I meant what I said (about quitting)," Toledo says, "but now when I look back, maybe the fans didn’t want me to quit. Maybe my daughter and son didn’t want me to quit. Maybe all the people who believe in me didn’t want me to quit.

"Now I know the feeling of winning and winning again. And it’s great."

For him and 28 orphans in Mexicali. His Esteban Toledo Family Foundation (estebantoledofamilyfoundation.org) was established this year. It is a safe and permanent home for "kids looking for something better, who want to get a great education."

"I’m not doing it for me or anybody else," Toledo says. "It’s for those children to have something they never had before."

Toledo and executive director Jay Miller dissolved their Get a Grip Foundation in Southern California last year. In the last decade, they provided more than 2,400 kids — mostly from families without much money — a program that offered tutoring, golf lessons, life skills and voluntary bible study.

But Toledo’s dream was to start his foundation where he grew up. The Championship Tour has provided the means. Toledo, who turned 51 last week, is ninth on the money list with $1 million-plus, on a tour where rookies have won the past four events. The first Champions’ champion from Mexico, who somehow got lost in resorts full of younger, longer-hitting, cookie-cutter golfers on the PGA Tour, is now in contention almost every week.

"I knew as soon as I got on the Champions Tour, if I had the ability and time to win, it would be easier for me to do what I do for children," Toledo says. "The Champions Tour has a big impact because that’s who we are — a bunch of guys who donate to people and make things possible. That’s what we do on the Champions Tour. I’m pretty sure everybody has something to do with helping others. …I think it’s pretty awesome."

What will Toledo do if he wins Sunday at Kapolei?

He hasn’t thought that far ahead, but he won’t be quitting anytime soon.