Jones Cup: A Collins mixer for Big Canyon Country Club

Richard Dunn

NEWPORT BEACH - When Steve Collins won his last Big Canyon Country

Club men’s championship, prior to last year, head professional Kelly

Manos was not even working in the golf business.

Now, they will be partners representing Big Canyon in the inaugural

Jones Cup, a better-ball gross pro-am involving the four private clubs in

this newspaper’s circulation.

“It always seemed like a natural to happen, to have a Tea Cup Classic

for the men,” said Collins, referring to the popular women’s community

championship launched in 1997 through the Fletcher Jones Motorcars/Daily

Pilot Club Championship Series, which was created with the intention of

someday organizing a tournament for men.

Like his 30-foot birdie putt on the 18th green to cap his victory in

the final round at the 1999 Big Canyon men’s club championship, Collins

is hoping for dramatics in the Jones Cup, which will be played Friday at

Newport Beach Country Club starting at 1 p.m.

Collins, 48, and Manos will tee it up against pro-am teams from Mesa

Verde Country Club (Pete Daley and head pro Tom Sargent), Newport Beach

(Bob Kraft and head pro Paul Hahn) and Santa Ana Country Club (Chris

Veitch and head pro Mike Reehl), with a perpetual trophy awarded to the

winning club.

“I just played with Chris Veitch, and we won low gross for the

tournament (the Balboa Invitational at Big Canyon Country Club in June),”

Collins said, referring to the familiarity most of the area’s top

amateurs have for each other.

When Collins won his final club championship of the 1980s, Manos was working for a collection agency. It wasn’t until 1990 when Manos got his

first break in the golf business and was hired as an apprentice at Yorba

Linda Country Club by Sargent, Yorba Linda’s head pro for almost 18 years

before coming to Mesa Verde in the mid-90s.

“I don’t think Kelly was big enough to break any arms or legs,”

Sargent once quipped about Manos’ former source of employment.

While Manos will be reunited in friendly competition with his former

mentor, Collins will try to help Big Canyon win again in a Daily

Pilot-organized golf tournament, following Selby Schriber’s victory at

the inaugural Tea Cup Classic in ‘97, also at Newport Beach Country Club.

Collins is a Santa Ana Heights resident who lives down the road from

Santa Ana Country Club, but has been a member at Big Canyon for 20 years.

Following Danny Bibb’s reign at Big Canyon with six men’s club titles

and four in a row, Collins won four of the next five club championships,

beginning in 1985. He won three straight from 1987 to 1989, then passed

the Big Canyon torch to Alan Drobka, who dominated the 1990s with six

titles.

But, after 10 years, Collins returned to the winners’ circle in ’99

and was selected by Manos to represent Big Canyon in the first Jones Cup,

a spinoff from the Tea Cup Classic.

Like the Tea Cup Classic, the Jones Cup was created to promote golf in

the Newport-Mesa area and bring the golf community closer together for a

day of fun, while crowning a club champion.

Collins’ fifth Big Canyon title pulled him to within one of the

all-time leaders (Bibb and Drobka), and, along with the inception of the

Jones Cup, has no doubt sparked some additional interest in club

championships for 21st century Newport-Mesa.

Last fall, heading down the 18th fairway with only a one-stroke lead,

Collins drained a python putt and ended up winning by two shots over Ron

Maggard and Gary Singer.

Collins finished at 306, followed by Maggard and Singer at 308 and

Bibb at 310.

But Collins wasn’t always on the links. “I’ve quit (playing golf) off

and on through the years, but I’ve been playing since I’ve been at Big

Canyon,” said Collins, who played one year at Stanford, where he was an

economics and political science major in 1974.

Collins, who grew up across the street from South Hills Country Club

in West Covina and started swinging the sticks at age 11, has competed in

the U.S. Amateur and California State Amateur.

During his championship streak in the late ‘80s at Big Canyon, Collins

once shot an opening-round 66 in the club championship to tie a course

record. The mark has since been shattered by Big Canyon member Tiger

Woods, who, playing for Stanford, shot 61 in the first round of the men’s

1996 Pacific 10 Conference championships, four months before Woods turned

pro.

Collins went on to capture the Big Canyon title that year at

5-under-par after four rounds, still a club record.

“Nobody’s even broken par in that (club championship),” he said. “I

doubt anybody will break it, especially now with the course being tougher

(following the 1998 remodeling).”

Collins operates an environmental engineering company close to John

Wayne Airport. He and his wife, Linda, have three boys.