Jones Cup: Paul Hahn

Richard Dunn

NEWPORT BEACH - As a kid, Paul Hahn always dreamed of playing on

the PGA Tour.

One day in college, however, Hahn broke his shoulder and his golf

swing never quite recovered.

But, with golf as his passion, Hahn has been able to enjoy the fruits

of the game from a different perspective and wouldn’t trade his job as

head professional at Newport Beach Country Club for anything else.

Hahn, who has developed a reputation as an excellent instructor at the

club, will dust off his clubs and pull out the competitive juices again

when he partners with amateur Bob Kraft in the inaugural Jones Cup Friday

at Newport Beach Country Club (1 p.m.).

“The amateurs play more (golf) than the head pros,” said Hahn, who has

been nursing a sore back the past few weeks, but is expected to tee it up

with Kraft, this year’s Newport Beach men’s club champion.

Hahn, 46, is also a newlywed, removing himself from the list of

Newport Beach’s eligible bachelors. He and his wife, Marlene, exchanged

vows near the 17th green at Pebble Beach 10 days prior to this year’s

U.S. Open. “It was pretty spectacular,” Hahn said.

But, before Hahn gets too comfortable in his new married life, he’ll

be put on center stage Friday in the ultimate community pro-am, a

two-man, better-ball gross format involving the four private clubs in

this newspaper’s circulation.

Hahn grew up in Central California and was an all-around athlete at

Paso Robles High, before earning a golf scholarship to San Jose State.

Later, his broken shoulder threw a wrench into his golf game, all but

ending his PGA Tour ambitions.

For 13 years, Hahn and a partner operated Mountain Meadows Golf Course

in Pomona, until a new concessionaire came in and bumped them out.

Hahn, who became a member of the Southern California PGA in 1982, was

hired by former Newport Beach Country Club head pro Monty Blodgett on

Aug. 8, 1989, and has been in golf heaven ever since. Whenever the air

gets sticky in Newport Beach, club president Jerry Anderson always tells

him: “You know, you could still be in Pomona.”

Hahn has also been a contributor to the Toshiba Senior Classic, the

Senior PGA Tour stop at Newport Beach Country Club in March.