Record numbers tee off today

Richard Dunn

COSTA MESA -- A record 376 golfers are expected to tee off today,

some before the roosters crow or before you’ve awakened to read about

the 30th annual Costa Mesa City Championship at Costa Mesa Golf &

Country Club.

The event, formerly known as the Will Jordan Classic, draws

players from throughout the Southland, mostly coastal Orange County,

and features 176 players in the championship flight -- all of whom

will play the shorter Mesa Linda course (5,551 yards) today. The Los

Lagos course is 6,542 yards long. The first tee time in the

championship flight is 5:50 a.m.

Defending champion Mike Carpenter (Big Canyon Country Club), who

will try to become only the third player in tournament history to

repeat, will tee off at 7:10 a.m. with fellow Big Canyon members

Danny Lane, Will Tipton and Danny Donovan.

Among the players to watch in the championship flight include Jake

Allanach (Big Canyon) and Costa Mesa’s Kyle Wilson, who are playing

together at 6 a.m.

Wilson, a former Estancia High and collegiate baseball standout as

a right-handed pitcher, is hoping to win his first Costa Mesa title

on his home course. And, as part of today’s second group, the

conditions should be ideal with little or no wind, along with freshly

rolled greens.

Today’s third group includes Newport Beach’s Ed Susolik, who

finished third last year in the Costa Mesa City Championship and

recently competed in the Pacific Coast Amateur Championship at San

Diego Country Club. Former Estancia golfer and football quarterback

Jeff Perry and 2002 Jones Cup participant Jeff Wright (Newport Beach

Country Club) are also teeing off in the third group.

Former local prep stars Steve French, Billy Collopy, Joe Choi and

Chad Towersey also have early tee times.

Lane, who helps manage the two city-owned golf courses, won Jones

Cup III with Big Canyon Director of Golf Bob Lovejoy on July 26,

making birdies on two of the last three holes. After Jones Cup III,

Lane recruited Wright to play in the Costa Mesa City Championship.

Carpenter, who has only been playing golf seriously for three

years, qualified last month for the U.S. Amateur Championship Aug.

19-25 at Oakland Hills Country Club in Birmingham, Mich., a former

U.S. Open course. Carpenter shot 69-70--139 and tied for second in a

qualifier July 29 at Goose Creek Golf Club in Mira Loma, where only

three qualifying spots were available for 90 players.

In last year’s Costa Mesa City Championship, Carpenter, who has

compiled an impressive 18-under-par in his career in three rounds on

Mesa Linda (shooting 66, 63 and 63), opened with his 66 in the first

round, then carded a 1-under-par 71 on Los Lagos to win by two

strokes over Jeff Coburn (139). Susolik shot 140, after posting a

2-under 70 on Los Lagos, the lowest score of the final round in the

championship flight.

Former Corona del Mar High standout John Wardrup (1990-91) and

Newport Harbor graduate Bryan Saltus (1995-96) are the only

back-to-back winners. Saltus, of Costa Mesa, is now making a name for

himself on the Canadian Tour.