Golf: Five Crowns Maggard grilling for Jones Cup

Richard Dunn

NEWPORT BEACH - It will be easy for Ron Maggard of Big Canyon

Country Club to remember the year 2000.

Maggard, 52, is in the restaurant business, and if his Long John

Silvers are anything like his golf in the millennium year, the menu must

include some pretty tasty seafood.

And, of course, Jones Cup organizers hope Maggard takes no offense to

calling his Grand Slam last year The Five Crowns of Golf.

“Well, the chances are pretty slim of that happening again,” Maggard

said of his five different championships at Big Canyon, which included

the coveted men’s club title, generally regarded among Newport-Mesa clubs

as the passport into the Jones Cup, the men’s pro-am featuring the four

clubs in the Daily Pilot circulation.

While Maggard can still relish in the fruits of 2000, he views his

only Big Canyon title as, well, perhaps his only one.

In addition to his men’s club championship last year, Maggard won the

Big Canyon senior men’s title, the match-play championship, the senior

match-play championship and the couples title with his wife, Linda.

And, since it was the first time Big Canyon played its men’s club

championship separate from its senior championship, and it was the first

year of the senior men’s match-play championship, Maggard captured the

club’s first, and maybe only, Five Crowns of Golf.

“Maybe 2000 was my year, I don’t know, but the only problem with

having a year like that, is that it doesn’t get any better,” he said.

“But at least I had one. Maybe the cards all fell my way. Maybe the stars

were aligned just right.”

Maggard, a Newport Beach resident, was dethroned in his first defense

of the Big Canyon match-play championship this year by Mike Carpenter,

who, at 28, is scary good.

“He’s going to be the new gun in town,” Maggard said of Carpenter, who

also won the Costa Mesa City Championship Sunday at Costa Mesa Golf &

Country Club.

“(Carpenter) is going to be the best player in town, until he figures

out how hard this game is. He just bombs the ball.”

Maggard, a squash player who seldom plays in golf tournaments outside

of Big Canyon, and Big Canyon Director of Golf Bob Lovejoy will represent

Big Canyon’s pro-am team Tuesday in Jones Cup II at Santa Ana Country

Club at 1 p.m.

“It’s always a pleasure to play with Bob,” Maggard said. “We always

get a little ribbing going. When someone makes a bad shot, you have to

take some ribbing from the other.”

Maggard, though, hopes that kind of ribbing will be kept to a minimum

Tuesday afternoon in the better-ball of partners format at Santa Ana,

where hosting pro and SACC Director of Golf Mike Reehl and amateur Gregg

Hemphill are expected to form a formidable team.

The competition, however, includes Newport Beach Country Club head pro

Paul Hahn and amateur Vinnie Brascia and the defending Jones Cup

champions from Mesa Verde Country Club, head pro Tom Sargent and amateur

Pete Daley.

“I’m looking forward to (the Jones Cup). I enjoy playing Santa Ana.

It’ll be nice playing with the guys,” said Maggard, a Big Canyon member

for 14 years.

In capturing the 2000 men’s club title, Maggard experienced the true

ebb and flow of golf, as a five-stroke lead with two holes remaining

wilted in regulation, forcing a playoff with Will Tipton. Maggard won in

an exciting four-hole playoff.

“It was very hard to let Will back in,” Maggard said of his

forgettable 17th hole in the final round of the club championship, which

resulted in a snowman.

“Yeah, I could’ve folded (in the playoff after a shaky finish in

regulation), and I probably should have. But I hung in there.”

Steve Collins played in the inaugural Jones Cup for Big Canyon with

then-head pro Kelly Manos, now the Director of Golf at The Club at

Morningside in Rancho Mirage.

Jones Cup II, organized by officials of the Fletcher Jones

Motorcars/Daily Pilot Club Championship Series, features two foursomes

teeing off back-to-back with galleries in tow. A pre-event drawing is

held to decide which two clubs play in a group.

All four amateurs are reigning men’s club champions at their

respective clubs.

Admission is free to the Jones Cup.