Small world in Jones Cup

Richard Dunn

With the Jones Cup, the world is getting smaller.

Back in the 1980s, I wrote stories and covered Laguna Beach High’s

pass-happy quarterback, Danny Lane. Now, he’s a member of the elite

amateur field in the ultimate community pro-am for men -- the Jones

Cup.

Lane, the men’s club champion at Big Canyon Country Club, will tee

it up in Jones Cup III on July 26 with Big Canyon Director of Golf

Bob Lovejoy as host Big Canyon attempts to retain the perpetual Jones

Cup-winning trophy.

“We had a good offense back then, and the coach let us throw the

football,” Lane said of his Laguna Beach grid days, when the Daily

Pilot covered the school and he passed for 2,286 yards and 19

touchdowns his senior year under Coach Lyman Olney, completing 179 of

257 passes.

Lane, who tossed 53 touchdown passes and only 16 interceptions in

his three-year varsity career, completed 70% of his passes in his

prep career (485 of 694). But it was baseball in which Lane has the

brightest future.

Even though Laguna Beach wasn’t known as a baseball power, Lane

went on to play shortstop at UC Santa Barbara, then was drafted by

the Montreal Expos and played four years in their minor league

system.

Lane, whose father, Ron, is a longtime golf standout and Big

Canyon member, didn’t get serious about golf until after his pro

baseball career. And now, at 32, he’s producing home runs and

touchdowns of another sort.

In Jones Cup III, Lane and Lovejoy will face Gregg Hemphill and

Santa Ana Country Club Director of Golf Mike Reehl, Jeff Wright and

Newport Beach Country Club head professional Paul Hahn and Pete Daley

and Mesa Verde Country Club head pro Tom Sargent. Daley and Sargent

captured the inaugural Jones Cup in 2000.

Under the Jones Cup format, each club is responsible for selecting

its own pro-am team. The pro must be a full-time staff member and the

amateur a dues-paying member at the club. The clubs rotate as host

site.

In addition to playing for community bragging rights and the

perpetual Jones Cup trophy, participants will be aiming for the flag

on the par-3 hole No. 7 at Big Canyon (193 yards), where a brand new

ML-320 Mercedes awaits any player sinking a hole-in-one.

* The other three par-3 holes will also include prizes for an

ace: A trip for two to the PGA Village, a full set of Giant Golf

irons and two one-year memberships to 24 Hour Fitness.

* Chip shots: Estancia High product Andrew Thompson, 22,

qualified for the Long Beach Open ... Newport Beach’s Steve Conway

finished out of the top 10 in the 103rd Southern California Amateur

Championship at El Caballero Country Club in Tarzana, but posted a

respectable 76-71-73-74--294 ... UC Irvine’s Mike Lavery took second

at the Southern California Amateur.

* RICHARD DUNN’S golf column appears every Thursday.