Golf: Super seniors

Richard Dunn

The beauty of golf is that it doesn’t always pay attention to

Father Time. Golf goes by its own time clock. It’s a pitching wedge and

driver instead of a scythe and an hourglass.

When your game improves as you turn 35, 45 and even 55, you begin to

realize why golf doesn’t have an old-timers’ game. You don’t see players

in other sports doing quite as well at their craft as age creeps up.

As golfers in Newport Beach and Costa Mesa embrace the inaugural Jones

Cup, it can be gratifying to know that this year’s participants aren’t

exactly young bucks.

The Jones Cup is a men’s pro-am to be played July 28 at Newport Beach

Country Club in a two-man, better-ball gross format, with the four

private clubs in this newspaper’s circulation vying for community

bragging rights and a magnificent perpetual Jones Cup trophy, while

amateurs gain instant fame and head professionals are put under the

spotlight.

Perhaps the biggest surprise in learning about the four amateurs is

that two of them are over 60, which means they’d qualify for the PGA

Tour’s Super Seniors.

Newport Beach Country Club men’s club champion Bob Kraft, who will tee

it up with head pro Paul Hahn, is 61. Mesa Verde Country Club men’s club

champion Pete Daley, who will partner with head pro Tom Sargent, is 60.

They are not senior club champions, mind you, but overall, stand-alone

champions. They make Big Canyon Country Club’s Steve Collins, 48, and

Santa Ana Country Club’s Chris Veitch, 46, seem like kids.

“I’m just a late bloomer,” said Daley, who won Mesa Verde’s senior

club championship in 1997, then captured his first club title at age 58

in 1998, before repeating as club champion in ’99.

In November, Daley had an artificial, six-hole putting green built in

the backyard of his home in Newport Beach. “But I can’t say it has

(necessarily) helped my game,” Daley quipped.

Newport Beach might have members who drive longer, putt more

consistently and score lower, but Kraft will always hang around and be

there at the end.

“(Kraft) outplayed everybody this year (in the Newport Beach men’s

club championship in May),” Hahn said. “Bobby’s a gutsy player, and he

knows how to get the ball in the hole. He’s a steady golfer. He’s not a

birdie machine, but he’s always there.”

Veitch, Santa Ana’s four-time club champion who will play with head

pro Mike Reehl in the Jones Cup, was also a late bloomer

After barely making the high school golf team his senior year, Veitch

attended USC and saw Craig Stadler and Scott Simpson and realized college

golf should probably not be in his plans.

“It’s a weird deal,” said Veitch, a Balboa Peninsula resident and

Newport Beach city amateur champion in 1998 and ’99. “I started playing

when I was 15, and I was better at age 25 than 15. Then I was better at

age 35 than 25, and I’m probably better at age (46) than 35.”

The baby in the inaugural group, Veitch has never carried a handicap

index of higher than 3 for the last 20 years. He said experience and

consistency have been the keys to his success.

Collins, who grew up playing South Hills Country Club in West Covina,

has played since age 11.

“It should be fun,” Veitch said of the Jones Cup. “I think the team

favorites are Kelly and Steve Collins from Big Canyon, because both are

very strong players.”

Of the four head pros, all are excellent golfers and have performed

well in competition, including the televised Subaru Team Championship

Matches.

“I think 7- or 8-under will win it,” said Hahn, predicting a score

that would easily sit atop the leaderboard at the Toshiba Senior Classic,

hosted by Newport Beach every March.

The Jones Cup, billed as the ultimate community pro-am, is the brand

new men’s competition in the Fletcher Jones Motorcars/Daily Pilot Club

Championship Series, which launched the Tea Cup Classic for women in

1997. Tee time is 1 p.m.

The Jones Cup is named after the only benefactor the series has had,

and includes a pro-am team from each. Players are selected by their

respective clubs.

The day of the pro-am, names of the clubs will be drawn out of a hat

before tee time to determine which two clubs will play in a foursome.

Newport Beach Country Club President Jerry Anderson will serve as the

rules official.

Furthermore, and similar to the popular Tea Cup Classic, the Jones Cup

will have hole-in-one prizes on all par-3s, including a 2000 Mercedes

Benz ML320, a sports utility vehicle reportedly valued at $40,195.

The Jones Cup will also be the first tournament outside of the NBCC

auspices to play the remodeled 18th green, which reopened to its members

Tuesday.

It will take place two weeks prior to the fourth annual Tea Cup

Classic, hosted by Big Canyon Country Club on Aug. 11.