Golf column

As the second millennium expires on club championships and the

Newport-Mesa golf community focuses on 21st Century Titles, Steve Collins

of Big Canyon Country Club has started to mix it up again in the men’s

club.

After a 10-year hiatus, Collins returned to the victory stand in the

men’s club championship, sinking a downhill, 20-foot birdie putt on 18 to

secure the title Sunday and win by two shots over Ron Maggard and Gary

Singer.

It was Collins’ fifth Big Canyon championship, following titles in

1985 and 1987-89, and it pulled him to within one of the club’s all-time

lead, shared by Danny Bibb and Alan Drobka, who captured six

championships in the 1990s.

Bibb, the community’s career leader with 11 titles (including five at

Newport Beach Country Club), dominated the local scene between 1977 and

1984.

Collins shot 306, followed by Maggard and Singer at 308 and Bibb at

310.

Bibb, Drobka and Collins should make for interesting Y2K drama, but

the most spectacular shot of the 1999 Big Canyon men’s club championship

-- the last such event in the area this millennium -- was Maggard’s hole

in one on the 177-yard par-three No. 12 with a seven iron.

Big Canyon’s Bill Donovan, waiting nearby, was the only one to witness

Maggard’s ace, because the hole is hidden from the tee box and tucked in

the right corner.

Maggard also won the seniors division with a three-round 228, followed

by Don Nourse (240).

Newport Beach Country Club has received approval from its parent

company, International Bay Clubs, Inc., to go forth with four upgrading

projects on the golf course, including a major change at the 18th green,

the finishing hole of the Toshiba Senior Classic -- the Senior PGA Tour

stop in Orange County.

Three of the four renovation projects will be completed by

Thanksgiving, rebuilt tee boxes on Nos. 3 and 6 and mounds constructed

behind the fifth green to give the hole a modern-day backstop. The club

is using architect Ted Robinson’s services again for golf course design.

The 18th green will not begin until after the 2000 Toshiba event Feb.

28 through March 5.

Newport Beach President Jerry Anderson said the driving range will

also be improved.

Big Canyon’s Linda Maggard has been a key member of the planning

committee and a volunteer for Crittenton’s second annual Community For

Kids Golf Tournament today at Strawberry Farms Golf Club.

Proceeds from the tournament will benefit Florence Crittenton Services

of Orange County, the leader for over 30 years in the care and successful

recovery of severely abused and troubled boys and girls.

Last year, the event raised almost $40,000 for the Florence Crittenton

Home, and this year, according to tournament chairman Jeana Kawamura

(Newport Beach), the amount donated is almost certain to be topped. The

tournament is sponsored by RSI Home Products, owned by Big Canyon’s Ron

Simon.

A shotgun start at 1 p.m. in a scramble format will be followed by a

lively barbecue awards dinner and silent auction at the Big Red Barn.

Details: (714) 680-9000.

Former Ram football player Rich Saul will serve as celebrity chairman

of the 10th annual Corporate Challenge Cup at Santa Ana Country Club, a

golf tournament Oct. 4 that benefits the American Cancer Society (Orange

County Region).

Saul, the former All-Pro center who snapped to quarterbacks Roman

Gabriel and Vince Ferragamo, was diagnosed with colon cancer this year

and underwent surgery in April. In May, he began an eight-month

chemotherapy program following the removal of four lymph lodes.

A 12-year NFL veteran, Saul never missed a game while playing in the

middle of the trenches.

Saul, who lives in Corona del Mar, has been involved in numerous

charities, including Orangewood and ChildHelp USA. Now, he’s making every

block he can to help fight cancer. Details: (949) 261-9446.

The King Stahlmans professional golf tour is coming to Costa Mesa Golf

& Country Club Sept. 21-22. There are three divisions: Pro, senior pro

and scratch amateur. The Los Lagos Course will be used both days.

Jeff Hart is the tour’s leading money winner at $26,277. Hart made a

name for himself locally by capturing back-to-back pro-am team titles in

the now-defunct Taco Bell Newport Classic Pro-Am, winning with Charlie

Rogers in 1995 and Rick Godber in ’96. For details on the tour: (800)

950-5537.

Promoters of the Inaugural Tee Off for Technology Classic, which will

benefit the Newport Harbor Educational Foundation and raise funds for

much-needed technology for the high school, were shocked to read in this

space Sept. 2 that the RIO Golf Classic was slated for Nov. 1 at Santa

Ana Country Club, the day of the Tee Off for Technology Classic.

After Mitch Barker’s jaw dropped, the club confirmed that his

tournament was indeed scheduled for Nov. 1, while the RIO Classic was

moved back to Nov. 15. Barker is co-chairman of the Tee Off for

Technology Classic and, well, he survived his first scare. Here’s to the

event shooting better than par Nov. 1.

The RIO Classic, which benefits the Rehabilitation Institute of

Southern California, will have a field limited to the first 144 golfers

Nov. 15.

Richard Dunn’s golf column appears every Thursday.