Golf: Once again, the real Top 10

Richard Dunn

There were playoffs and wild finish in the millennium year 2000,

and, as an annual holiday treat in this space, here are the year’s Top 10

Golf Feats and Stories, according to yours truly.

1) The inaugural Jones Cup: To capture the homespun event for Mesa

Verde Country Club, head professional Tom Sargent pulled off a remarkable

flop shot on the last hole at Newport Beach Country Club.

With Sargent’s ball buried deep in the right rough at 18, and a

subsequent check by rules official Jerry Anderson to see if it was

embedded and possibly stepped on by someone in the gallery, the

53-year-old former PGA of America Professional of the Year put on a

short-game clinic.

Tied with Newport Beach at 1-under in the pro-am heading to 18, Mesa

Verde needed birdie to win. But Sargent’s second shot landed to the right

of the green, and, after it bounced, lodged itself firmly about a

half-inch below the top of the thick grass.

“I thought about picking it up and moving it (for a better lie), but

there were way too many people watching,” Sargent quipped, after

executing one of golf’s toughest shots to near perfection, flopping onto

the edge of the green to within two feet, setting up a birdie putt as

Mesa Verde won a thriller before an estimated 300 fans.

The Great Eight in the highly competitive pro-am field were selected

by the four private clubs in the Daily Pilot circulation. There were

four, two-player teams in a better-ball gross format, the new men’s event

in the Fletcher Jones Motorcars/Daily Pilot Club Championship Series,

which launched the Tea Cup Classic for women in 1997.

Before Sargent’s must-see flop shot, he drained a 60-foot birdie putt

on No. 2 and a 50-footer on No. 16.

“We’re a big-play team. We go for the three-run home runs and 60-yard

touchdowns,” said Sargent, who won with Mesa Verde men’s club champion

Pete Daley.

2) The Hyundai Team Matches: How can you beat perfect weather at

Pelican Hill Golf Club, a Senior PGA Tour victory by legends Jack

Nicklaus and Tom Watson, and playoffs in both the PGA Tour and LPGA Tour

finals?

In an unforgettable final day of the made-for-television event shown

on ABC, Nicklaus and Watson won again as the Golden Bear roared, while

two matches extended the live telecast more than an hour.

With blue skies overhead the entire weekend and sailboats on the

Pacific Ocean as a backdrop, heavy drama played out on the Ocean North

Course in the championship matches of all three major tours.

For Nicklaus and Watson, they won their second straight Team Matches

title, while improving to 8-0 in their careers as match-play partners,

after beating Bruce Fleisher and David Graham, 4 and 2.

On the PGA Tour, Tom Lehman and Duffy Waldorf defeated defending

champions Fred Couples, the “King of the Silly Season,” and Mark

Calcavecchia in a match requiring two extra holes.

On the LPGA Tour, Julie Inkster and Dottie Pepper won their Team

Matches-record fourth straight title, defeating Annika Sorenstam and

Lorie Kane in a 21-hole showdown.

“This week has been an eye-opener for me, because I felt terrific

every time with the putter,” said Nicklaus, the event’s top headliner.

3) The perennial No. 1, the Senior PGA Tour’s Toshiba Senior Classic

at Newport Beach Country Club, fell to third in 2000, despite a record

fund-raising effort by the managing charity (over $1 million).

With the final round rained out and Allen Doyle taking home a

first-place trophy and $195,000 paycheck for only two rounds, the Toshiba

Senior Classic no doubt lost some luster on the golf course.

In the previous three years, some of the greatest finishes on the

Senior Tour took place at Newport Beach, easily putting the event atop

one writer’s year-end list.

In 1997, Bob Murphy defeated Jay Sigel in a tour-record nine-hole

playoff with an 80-foot birdie putt at 17, chugging its way up a

difficult, two-tiered. The nine-hole record would later be broken.

In ‘98, Hale Irwin shot a course-record 62 in the final round to come

from five strokes back and leapfrog past a handful of players on the

leaderboard, winning miraculously while triggering another Player of the

Year season, claiming his first of seven tournament titles.

Irwin was aided at 17 by the Famous Bunker Rake, which stopped his

ball from rolling in the water, allowing Irwin to get up and down to save

par on his way to a memorable course-record finish.

Then, in ‘99, Gary McCord and John Jacobs were the stars of a four-man

playoff with incredible shots and hilarious antics, seemingly putting the

Senior Tour on new level of golf theater right before our eyes.

The 2000 Classic, however, featured Arnold Palmer for the first time.

The 70-year-old legend played his first competitive round in Orange

County.

Doyle, a former driving-range pro who has an unusual backswing, shot

6-under 136 to win the 36-hole event, becoming the sixth different

champion in the event’s six-year history.

4) Dennis Paulson leads the Masters: In April, the former Costa Mesa

High golfer, who grew up playing Santa Ana Country Club, was a surprise

first-round leader at Augusta National.

Paulson held a one-stroke lead over Lehman during a windy opening

round, vaulting him into the spotlight at this year’s first major

championship.

Playing his first Masters after a successful 1999 season on the PGA

Tour, Paulson shot 4-under-par 68, while Lehman lost the lead with a

double-bogey six on the 18th hole.

Paulson, 37, made an eagle three on the par-5 second hole, while

adding five birdies, one bogey and a double bogey in his memorable round.

Only nine of the field’s 93 players were under par.

A member of the Daily Pilot Sports Hall of Fame, Paulson moved to 37th

on the ’99 PGA Tour money list from 317th in 1998.

5) Tea Cup Classic IV: In a one-hole playoff, Marianne Towersey of

Santa Ana Country Club defeated Debbie Albright of Newport Beach to win

her third straight Tea Cup Classic title. The event was hosted by Big

Canyon Country Club.

Towersey won the popular community golf tournament for the four

women’s club champions in the Daily Pilot circulation in front of a

rolling crowd of 200. Towersey and Albright finished tied at 4-over-par

76 in the 18-hole, stroke-play shootout.

Towersey and Albright were tied for the last five holes in regulation,

while Mesa Verde’s Denise Woodard and Big Canyon’s Colette Taormina

battled for third place.

It was the first playoff in Tea Cup Classic history.

The locally famous Towersey secured Tea Cup titles in 1998 at Santa

Ana Country Club and ’99 at Mesa Verde Country Club by seven strokes

each. But in 2000 it was no cup of tea.

“It’s always fun to win, but it was nerve-racking,” Towersey said.

The 2000 Tea Cup Classic completed the first four-club rotation of

host sites.

6) Big Canyon hosts successful U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship,

while Towersey advances to the third round:

It was Big Canyon Country Club’s first USGA event, and Towersey

grabbed most of the local headlines with match-play victories in the

first two rounds, before losing in the third round to eventual champion

Ellen Port of St. Louis, Mo.

Port became the only woman in history to win the championship for a

third time.

Towersey advanced the farthest of the six Orange County residents in

the event, and her third-round appearance automatically qualified her for

next year’s U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship at Fox Run in Eureka, Mo.

Longtime Big Canyon member Dennis Harwood serves as co-chairman of the

championship and is largely responsible for bringing the event to the

county’s most exclusive private club.

Harwood said 21 of the top 50 women amateurs in the world, including

college players, played in the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur, according to

Golf Week’s rankings.

7) Scott Osterhout of Huntington Beach wins the Costa Mesa City

Championship in August, beating Eric Wang of Cypress in a three-hole

playoff, after they both shot 142 after two rounds.

The event played at Costa Mesa Golf & Country Club started in 1973 and

has been won by Mark O’Meara (1979) and Scott Simpson (‘74).

8) Mesa Verde’s Daley: The 60-year-old Daley, who didn’t start playing

golf until age 41 and has never taken a lesson in his life, rises to the

top of the Newport-Mesa golf community.

The three-time Mesa Verde men’s club champion flexed his muscles on

the national scene after teaming with Sargent to win the Jones Cup (see

item No. 1).

Daley enjoyed a strong performance at the U.S. Senior Amateur

Championship in Charlotte, N.C., reaching the Round of 16 in the

match-play event.

Daley, who played 43 holes one day because of rain delays in

Charlotte, advanced to match play after shooting 73-75--148 in

stroke-play qualifying. Daley was seeded fifth in the 64-player

match-play field.

After winning the Jones Cup, Daley won the 2000 club title at Mesa

Verde with a 78-72-78--228.

9) Big surprise hole-in-one: Newport Beach’s Allan Effron fired an ace

during the Irrelevant Week Runnin’ Gunnin’ Golf Tournament at Newport

Beach Golf Course.

Effron, 52, used a 5-iron on the ninth hole (152 yards), an ace

witnessed by Eberhard Neutz and Marsha Kerns. It was Effron’s first

career hole-in-one.

“Actually, it was probably the wrong club, but I guess it worked,”

said Effron, whose shot bounced in front of the green and rolled up,

before landing in the cup.

When a hacker finds the bottom of the cup, it is a celebration of

different proportions. Those in the fraternity know what I’m talking

about.

10) Newport Beach Open: Darren Ernst, a Costa Mesa resident and

third-year golf pro, played Newport Beach Country Club like a true pro in

winning the Newport Beach Open.

Ernst carded a 5-under-par 65 and won $2,000 cash, plus a watch worth

$4,000, according to Jeff Parker, Director of Operations for the event’s

host -- the Newport Harbor Area Chamber of Commerce.

Richard Dunn’s golf column appears every Thursday. His column will

appear again Jan. 11.