Golf: Field wide open for Newport club championship

Richard Dunn

The final amateur spot in the Jones Cup is up for grabs beginning

today in the men’s club championship at Newport Beach Country Club.

With defending champion Vinnie Brascia out of the picture, the race

for the club title appears to be wide open. The three-round club

championship concludes Sunday and the winner will also receive an

invitation from head professional Paul Hahn to team with him in Jones Cup

III on July 26 at Big Canyon Country Club.

The Jones Cup, the ultimate community pro-am with a better-ball of

partners format, features the four private clubs in the Daily Pilot

circulation -- with each club serving as host of the event on a rotating

basis.

Reigning men’s club champions Danny Lane (Big Canyon), Pete Daley

(Mesa Verde Country Club) and Gregg Hemphill (Santa Ana Country Club)

have locked up club titles heading into Jones Cup III and will likely be

teamed with their respective head pro and/or director of golf.

It is only required that a staff member at each club play with the

men’s club champion in the Jones Cup.

Mesa Verde captured the inaugural Jones Cup in dramatic fashion, when

head pro Tom Sargent’s flop shot at 18 set up an easy birdie putt to win

by a stroke.

Big Canyon, with Director of Golf Bob Lovejoy and men’s club champion

Ron Maggard, won last year’s event in a three-hole playoff over Santa

Ana.

At Newport Beach, Brascia cleared the way for a new champion by moving

his business out of Newport Beach and dropping his membership at the

club.

For the 36 amateurs who will contend for the Newport Beach title this

weekend, new member Jeff Wright has the lowest handicap index at 0.5, but

four-time champion Jim Whitaker (1990, ‘93, ’95 and ‘98), two-time winner

Joe Stafford (1997 and ‘99) and Kent Pfeiffer are expected to push

Wright, a Daily Pilot Sports Hall of Famer based on his days as a Corona

del Mar High golf standout in the early 1980s.

The sister event of the Jones Cup in the Fletcher Jones

Motorcars/Daily Pilot Club Championship Series is the Tea Cup Classic for

women, which will be played this summer at Santa Ana, the date still to

be confirmed.

The 18-hole, stroke-play event is expected to feature defending

champion Debbie Albright (Newport Beach), who won her seventh consecutive

women’s club championship earlier this month, Olivia Slutzky (Big

Canyon), Marianne Towersey (Santa Ana) and first-time Tea Cup qualifier

Akemi Khaiat (Mesa Verde).

The 10th annual Crean Celebrity Golf Classic, which benefits the

Alzheimer’s Association, is June 6 at Pelican Hill Golf Club.

The generous support of east Santa Ana Heights residents Donna and

John Crean has made it possible for the golf tournament to continue for a

decade. Last year it was held at Coto de Caza Golf & Racquet Club and

$90,000 was raised to promote increased awareness and provide funds for

Alzheimer’s disease. Details: (714) 283-1111.

The Estancia High Eagle Classic is June 10 at Costa Mesa Golf &

Country Club (Los Lagos course) with a buffet dinner afterward at Newport

Rib Company.

Prizes will be awarded to winners on three skill levels, as well as

closest to the pin. A long-drive contest, raffle, drawing and no host bar

will accompany the ensuing rib feast. The format is a best-ball scramble.

Details: (949) 645-2581.