Golf: Jones Cup II headed for Santa Ana Country Club

Richard Dunn

SANTA ANA HEIGHTS - The ultimate local men’s golf pro-am, the

second annual Jones Cup, is set for Aug. 14 at Santa Ana Country Club.

Santa Ana Country Club, which is celebrating its 100-year anniversary

later this summer, hosted the second Tea Cup Classic -- the women’s

four-player championship -- in 1998.

Mike Reehl, Santa Ana’s Director of Golf, said he’s excited about

playing his home course in the Jones Cup with 2001 men’s club champion

Gregg Hemphill, while Mesa Verde Country Club, with head pro Tom Sargent,

will defend the perpetual Jones Cup trophy.

The locally famous Jones Cup and Tea Cup Classic (July 27 at Newport

Beach Country Club) play under the auspices of the Fletcher Jones

Motorcars/Daily Pilot Club Championship Series, which was launched by

this sports section in 1997.

After success with the Tea Cup Classic, which was started to 1)

promote women’s golf and 2) more closely connect the local golf

community, the Jones Cup opened last summer at Newport Beach, where

Sargent made the legend of the flop shot come to life at the 18th green.

“There’s no pressure (to repeat),” Sargent said recently, “because we

shouldn’t have won last time. We just got lucky.”

Sargent, who said Mesa Verde men’s club champion Pete Daley will join

him again this year in the pro-am, is expected to see stiff competition

from home-course hero Reehl, Big Canyon Country Club Director of Golf Bob

Lovejoy and Newport Beach head pro Paul Hahn, along with their handpicked

amateur partners.

The format is better-ball of partners over 18 holes, with two teams

playing in a group. The two groups tee off back-to-back with galleries in

tow. A pre-event drawing is held to decide which two clubs play in a

group.

There’s no green jacket or million-dollar paycheck for the winner, but

local interest is high and players, both pros and ams, are eager to

participate in the unique community event.

In addition to the perpetual trophy, the Jones Cup winner is crowned

Daily Pilot champion and celebrated largely in local golf lore.

Along with Hemphill and Daley, Big Canyon’s Ron Maggard and Newport

Beach’s Vinnie Brascia, men’s club champions at their respective clubs,

will likely round out the amateur field.

In last year’s Jones Cup thriller, Sargent won it for Mesa Verde with

a jaw-dropping flop shot from the deep rough to the right of the 18th

green.

After python putts and chip-ins for birdie by Sargent and hosting head

pro Hahn, it came down to one big flop.

Sargent’s ball at 18 was buried in the rough, requiring rules official

Jerry Anderson, President of Newport Beach Country Club, to check if the

ball was embedded and possibly stepped on by a member of the gallery (it

wasn’t).

Mesa Verde teed off at 18 tied with Newport Beach at 1-under, but

Sargent’s second shot landed to the right of Newport Beach’s

then-recently remodeled 18th green. After the ball bounced, it lodged

firmly about an 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

and rolling two feet to the flag, setting up an easy birdie putt as Mesa

Verde captured the inaugural Jones Cup before an estimated 300 fans.

“Actually, there was a lady sitting in a golf cart across the green,

and, before I made the shot, I had visions of getting too much (club) and

drilling her right between the eyes.”

In a do-or-die situation, Sargent turned to his caddie and son, Luke,

and offered him the 57-degree lob wedge in jest, and both laughed. Then

Sargent turned and launched a difficult shot in textbook style, with all

eyes focused on him, like a pro giving a short-game clinic.

“You open up and it’s just like a bunker shot, just with more prayer,”

Sargent said.

Daley, who saved par for his team with a big up and down on 9, helped

Mesa Verde finish at 2-under 69 for a one-stroke victory over Newport

Beach, which had three birdies by Hahn and men’s club champion Bob Kraft.

After two of its birdies, Newport Beach made bogey on the next hole.

“It was really a gas,” Hahn said. “I felt my competitive juices coming

back. It’s been years (since I’ve played competitively). This is not a

big tournament, but it’s competitive.”

Two strokes off the lead and finishing at even-par 71 was Santa Ana

with Reehl and 2000 men’s club champion Chris Veitch, who did not play to

defend in this year’s Santa Ana men’s club championship.

Big Canyon last year finished 1-over 72 with then-head pro Kelly Manos

and men’s club champion Steve Collins.

While Sargent isn’t a regular on the Southern California PGA circuit

and rarely plays in competitive tournaments, he said it was fun to

compete and rub elbows with his Newport-Mesa community golf peers.

Along with his 18th-hole dramatics, Sargent drained a 60-foot birdie

putt on No. 2 and a 50-footer on No. 16, which tied Newport Beach for the

lead in a tightly contested Jones Cup.

Hahn, with local knowledge but also the home-course pressure from

members in the gallery, chipped in for birdie from 30 feet at 9 and sank

a 40-foot birdie putt at 11. He also scrambled to save par at 17.

“I think seeing the number of people here today tells how successful

the event is, or what it will become,” Manos said after Jones Cup I. “Any

time you bring the golf community together is great.”

Clint Whitehill replaced Manos earlier this year as head pro at Big

Canyon. Manos is the Director of Golf at The Club at Morningside in

Rancho Mirage.