Martin driving hard

Bryce Alderton

The love of golf prompted a vision for Boyd Martin and Tom Shauppner.

Martin, who claimed his sixth Santa Ana Country Club’s men’s golf

championship late last month, and Shauppner met in the mid 1990s and

a short time later, a facility for driving golf balls was built.

The two own the Long Beach Golf Learning Center, which opened in

1997, near where the 710 and San Diego Freeways meet.

“Just the love of golf,” Martin said when asked what sparked him

and Shauppner to build the center. “Tom was interested in getting

into the golf ownership business, so we found the land and built the

range from scratch.”

Shauppner, who Martin said handles the day-to-day operations of

the practice center, also gives short-game advice to the Santa Ana

club champion, who will make his first appearance in Jones Cup IV, a

better-ball of partners format featuring an amateur and golf

professional from each of the private courses in Newport-Mesa, Friday

at Mesa Verde Country Club.

Martin, a Corona del Mar resident who works in the real estate

industry, has been specifically focusing on approach shots from

inside 100 yards.

“I’m working on the 50-to-80-yard shots, learning to control

them,” said Martin, who defeated Bill Welch, 4 and 3, in the final 36

holes of match play for the club championship.

“At the end of 18 I was 1 up, then I shot about three-under [par]

the last 18 holes,” Martin said. “I made a few putts down the stretch

against a good player.”

Martin expects the Jones Cup, which begins at 1:30 p.m. Friday, to

come down to who can manage themselves around the greens.

“I’ve played [Mesa Verde] a lot and it is a very good test of

golf,” he said. “It will always come down to putting. Hopefully the

greens are fast and smooth. I like to play in tournaments when the

greens are fast.”

Not to say that keeping the ball straight won’t also be a key to

success Friday.

“I think you will have to drive the ball well,” Martin said.

“Everybody is a good player and hopefully everyone’s putter doesn’t

get hot at the same time.”

Beginning last Thursday, Martin and Geoff Cochrane, Santa Ana’s

head golf professional and Jones Cup partner, competed on their home

course with six other amateurs and professionals in a Southern

California PGA summer scratch league tournament, an 18-hole medalist event that rotates between eight Southern California clubs. The

format is similar to team play.

Martin, who won the Orange County amateur title in 2000, when the

event was held at Strawberry Farms Golf Club in Irvine, and Shauppner

finished seventh in a pro scratch event in Fresno.

Galleries don’t bother this husband and father of two grown

children, but rather encourage him.

“I love playing in front of people, they spur me on,” Martin said.

He was in the Jones Cup gallery two years ago at Santa Ana when

Big Canyon Country Club’s pro-am team of Bob Lovejoy and Ron Maggard

defeated the host team of Mike Reehl and Gregg Hemphill in a

three-hole playoff.

“It’s always fun to test yourself and see how well your game is,”

Martin said of the Jones Cup. “We all know each other, so it should

be good fun.”