Golf: Hahn honing in

Richard Dunn

Talk about keeping the momentum going ... Ever since the inaugural

Jones Cup last summer, Newport Beach Country Club head professional Paul

Hahn has kept the fire in his golf bag alive.

Recently, Hahn teamed with women’s club champion Debbie Albright to

tie for second place at the Southern California PGA Pro-Lady Club

Champion Championship at the par-70 Candlewood Country Club in Whittier,

where they shot 1-under 69.

Candlewood head pro and host Mark Blakely and club champion Joyce Fung

shot 3-under 67 to win the SCPGA event by two strokes. Blakely earned

$900, Hahn $690.

Then, on Monday, Hahn and Newport Beach assistant pro Bruce Hooper

placed fifth at 3-under 69 (an $850 paycheck) at the SCPGA Pinehurst

Championship at Mission Viejo Country Club, where four teams tied for

first at 4-under 68.

In late July, Hahn and Newport Beach men’s club champion Bob Kraft

finished second behind Jones Cup champion Mesa Verde Country Club

(featuring head pro Tom Sargent and club champion Pete Daley).

In the Jones Cup, Hahn made three birdies, including a chip from 30

feet on No. 9 and a 40-foot birdie putt on No. 11. But perhaps his best

moment came on the hilly rough at 17, Newport Beach’s signature hole.

To save par at 17 and keep his team tied with Mesa Verde at 1-under,

Hahn scrambled in spectacular fashion. His tee shot was long and left,

landing in a difficult spot as Hahn was staring at the threatening,

two-tiered green. But his chip was perfect, rolling to six feet before

sinking the clutch putt.

“I felt my competitive juices coming back,” Hahn said after the Jones

Cup, hosted by Newport Beach Country Club. “It’s been years (since I’ve

played competitively). This is not a big tournament, but it’s

competitive.”

Like its predecessor, the Tea Cup Classic for women, it seems playing

in the Jones Cup has sparked a certain interest in one’s golf game.

If you remember, Mesa Verde clinched the 2000 Jones Cup on the last

hole as Sargent’s Flop Shot Heard ‘Round the Newport-Mesa World sealed

the deal at 2-under 69.

With Sargent’s ball deeply embedded into the right rough, his flop

shot with a 57-degree wedge landed on the edge of the green and rolled to

two feet, setting up a birdie putt as Mesa Verde won a thriller before an

estimated 300 fans.

Stay tuned for Jones Cup II in 2001.

Speaking of Mesa Verde Country Club, the annual Tournament of

Champions is Saturday and Sunday, an event for all men’s tournament

champions in 2000 and the monthly low gross and low net qualifiers.

About 40 players will tee it up in a 36-hole format with gross and net

winners.

Dave Irwin (gross) and Chuck Friedersdorf (net) are the defending

champions.

Mesa Verde men’s club champion Pete Daley is among the favorites to

win this year’s Tournament of Champions.

Bulletin board material: When Phil Mickelson talked recently about the

upcoming Hyundai Team Matches at Pelican Hill Golf Club, he was asked

about facing PGA Tour defending champions Fred Couples and Mark

Calcavecchia.

“When we meet up,” said Mickelson, who will partner with Rocco

Mediate, “they’re going to take a pretty sound beating.”

The made-for-television event features four, two-player teams from

each of the three major tours competing in three separate tournaments.

A total of 24 pros from the PGA Tour, Senior PGA Tour and LPGA Tour

will also play in the Friday Pro-Am Dec. 15.

Defending Senior Tour champions Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson are the

event’s top headliners, while Annika Sorenstam (with partner Lori Kane)

and defending champions Juli Inkster and Dottie Pepper are the ladies’

marquee names. For tickets: call (949) 759-5175, or Ticketmaster at (877)

484-3014.

Estancia High product Andy Thomson (Costa Mesa) shot 143 in two rounds

of the John Ruedi Memorial Coronado City Amateur Championships last

Saturday and Sunday.

Thomson is a redshirt sophomore at UC San Diego.

The 2000 Dennis Paulson Junior Invitational Championship, a 36-hole

event with no cut, is Dec. 27-28 at Cypress Golf Club in Los Alamitos.

The event, operated by Junior Amateur Golf Scholars, requires a $125

registration for greens fees, range balls, lunch and awards.

Entries are open to all junior golfers between 13 and 18. Players may

be 18 if attending high school.

Former Big Canyon Country Club head professional Kelly Manos, now

Director of Golf at The Club at Morningside in Rancho Mirage, is the PGA

Professional Director of JAGS.

The entry deadline is Nov. 20. Membership in JAGS or 3.0 grade-point

average is not required for invitational tournaments. However, JAGS

members will be given priority status. Details: (714) 952-3316.

Paulson, a Costa Mesa High product and Santa Ana Country Club honorary

member, enjoyed a breakthrough year on the PGA Tour in 1999 and followed

it up with some spectacular rounds this year, including his first title

(the Buick Classic in June) and leading the Masters after the first round

with an opening 4-under 68.

Paulson, 38, went from 317th on the tour’s money list in 1998 to 37th

last year.

Paulson, who considered giving up golf before playing on the Asian

Tour in the early 1990s, qualified for the PGA Tour in 1994 and ’95 and played on the Nike Tour in 1997 and ’98.

Richard Dunn’s golf column appears every Thursday.