Golf: Tea Cup adds drama for club champions

Richard Dunn

Once you win a club championship, that’s it. You collect your

trophy, buy a few rounds and go home. See ya next year.

But, since the Tea Cup Classic was launched in 1997, club champions in

the Daily Pilot circulation have earned a ticket into the locally famous

event for women.

“Once you win a club championship,” said first-time Big Canyon Country

Club champion Olivia Slutzky, “there’s really no drama after winning it.

So, now, it’s great to look forward to this. It’s something special for

women golfers.”

The cozy, 18-hole stroke-play event -- July 27 at Newport Beach

Country Club at 1 p.m. -- will feature three-time defending champion

Marianne Towersey of Santa Ana Country Club, Denise Woodard of Mesa Verde

Country Club, Debbie Albright of host Newport Beach and Slutzky.

Since the Tea Cup Classic started in 1997, neither Towersey, Woodard

nor Albright have relinquished their respective club titles.

The men also have their day in the sun now in the Newport-Mesa

community -- in the form of the Jones Cup.

Several of the amateurs playing in Jones Cup II, Aug. 14 at Santa Ana

Country Club, have been hot lately.

For example: Not only did Jones Cup participant Gregg Hemphill of

Santa Ana win his first men’s club championship this year, he captured

the club’s member/member low-gross championship with Dave Bock last fall.

The team shot 64-68--132 in the better ball of partners, the same format

as the Jones Cup.

For Hemphill to win the SACC men’s club championship last spring, it

was quite a feat, considering the club’s stiff competition from players

like Eric Pepys, Frank Robitaille, John Mullins, Lew Schmid, Ed Shumaker,

Wayne Searcey, Jake Klohs, Duane Hastings, Boyd Martin and Brian

Towersey. Just to name a few.

Chris Veitch, Santa Ana’s three-time defending champion, did not

compete in the 2001 SACC men’s club championship, because the date of the

finals conflicted with his daughter’s wedding in La Quinta.

Hemphill, who has an 8-month-old baby boy at home, became the fourth

different player to win a Santa Ana men’s club title since 1995, when

Martin won his fifth title. Rick Herrera won titles in 1996-97.

Mesa Verde’s Pete Daley, who, at 61, is among the busiest senior

golfers in the country, is returning to the Jones Cup to defend his title

with head pro Tom Sargent, whose Flop Shot Heard ‘Round the World set up

an easy birdie putt on 18 to win last year’s inaugural Jones Cup for Mesa

Verde.

It appears Ron Maggard will play for Big Canyon Country Club with Bob

Lovejoy, the club’s Director of Golf.

In 2000, Maggard enjoyed a career year with the Five Crowns of Golf,

winning Big Canyon’s Grand Slam quintet.

Maggard won the club’s senior men’s title, the match-play

championship, the senior match-play championship, the couples title with

his wife, Linda, and the men’s club championship all in the same year.

In the men’s club championship, which gave Maggard his unofficial

Jones Cup entry, he defeated Will Tipton in an exciting four-hole

playoff, after blowing a five-stroke lead over the final two holes in

regulation.

(Each club from the area selects a pro-am team for the Jones Cup, a

“featured” staff professional and, assumably, the men’s club champion).

The Jones Cup and Tea Cup Classic are played under the auspices of the

Fletcher Jones Motorcars/Daily Pilot Club Championship Series, started by

this sports section in 1997.

The 29th annual Costa Mesa City Championship, formerly known as the

Will Jordan Classic, is Aug. 4-5 at Costa Mesa Golf & Country Club. Scott

Osterhout is the defending champion. Details: (714) 540-7500, x 3.

Ryan Ozonian of Newport Coast shot a final-round 75 for a two-day

total of 152 to capture the overall boys division title last week at the

Junior Amateur Golf Scholars (JAGS) Summer Series at Goose Creek Golf

Club in Mira Loma.

In the opening round, temperatures climbed over the 105-degree mark

with relentless winds, as Ozonian fired a low-round of 77 to lead the

tournament after 18 holes.

On the second day, Ozonian carded a 6-over-par 41 on the front nine,

with temperatures down to the mid-90s, but with continued winds.

On the back nine, Ozonian posted a 1-under 34 to secure his first JAGS

Tour title.

“The wind was really blowing on the front and it was hard to read the

greens and stay focused,” Ozonian said. “I wasn’t going to let this

tournament get away from me, so I settled down and started the back nine

hitting fairways and greens in regulation and dropping putts for a

bogey-free 1-under 34.”

The next JAGS Tour stop is July 19-20 at Green River Golf Course in

Corona. Costa Mesa Golf & Country Club will host a JAGS Tour stop Aug.

28-29.

The JAGS Tour, a year-round tour for boys and girls 13-18, has seven 36-hole tournaments with no cut for the 2001 summer series.

Membership in JAGS is not a requirement to play, but all players must

meet the 3.0 grade-point average standard. JAGS entry fees include green

fees, range balls, lunch and awards. Details: (562) 493-8416 or (714)

952-3316.

Richard Dunn’s golf column appears every Thursday.