Team golf will be at its finest

BRYCE ALDERTON

It’s only two weeks away.

Again, to encourage galleries and to ingrain in everyone’s brains,

the refurbished, revamped, retooled, whatever-”re”-word-you-want-

to-attach, Jones Cup will debut at 1 p.m. Aug. 18 at Newport Beach

Country Club.

This will be big. The grandest community golf spectacle

Newport-Mesa has seen.

Golf, most often referred to as an individual sport and rightfully

so, will turn into a team game, ala the Ryder Cup.

A group of three amateurs and one golf professional from each of

the four private clubs in Newport-Mesa -- Big Canyon Country Club,

Santa Ana Country Club, Mesa Verde Country Club and Newport Beach --

will bond together for an afternoon of 18 holes on the same course

that hosts the Toshiba Senior Classic each March.

Things could change in the next 14 days, but the lineups for each

club are firmly established.

Here they are: Newport Beach Country Club -- head golf

professional Paul Hahn, senior club champion George Dahl, men’s club

champion Jeff Wright, women’s club champion Debbie Albright; Mesa

Verde Country Club -- women’s club champion Akemi Khaiat, men’s club

champion Dave Irwin, senior club champion Steve Rhorer, head pro Tom

Sargent; Big Canyon Country Club -- Director of Golf Bob Lovejoy,

men’s club champion Will Tipton, women’s club champion Sally

Holstein, senior club champion Steve Collins; Santa Ana Country Club

-- women’s club champion Marianne Towersey, men’s club champion Bill

Welch, senior club champion Boyd Martin, head pro Geoff Cochrane.

Each foursome will count its two best balls out of four for each

hole, which will involve more players and should make for some gutsy

golf, as Irwin explained.

“If you have a 30-foot birdie putt and your partner has already

made par, you can be a lot more aggressive with your putt than you

might tend to be,” Irwin said.

In speaking with several of the players, most, if not nearly all

of them said, the format will take the pressure off.

This is most true of the ladies, who were used to 18 holes of

stroke play in the seven prior Tea Cup Classics. They didn’t have

partners, like the men did in the Jones Cup, to provide a support

system should they falter in their games.

In the former Jones Cup, an amateur from each of the four clubs,

usually the men’s club champion, paired with a golf professional of

that club. One best ball of the two was counted for each hole.

If one guy had a bad hole, his partner could pick up the slack and

the team wouldn’t suffer.

The same is true this year, just on a larger scale.

The Jones Cup has grown up.

It is now the ultimate in team golf.

And why players might say the new format will take some pressure

off, come the back nine, I’m willing to bet there will be a few legs

wobbling slightly over those 3-foot putts.

Now, more than ever for community golf in this area, players will

feel even more allegiance to their respective club.

Marianne Towersey, winner of five Tea Cup Classic titles, said

Sunday that Santa Ana should pick a team color.

What a great idea.

“We want the team spirit to spread. We want to get people from

[Santa Ana Country Club] cheering us on,” Towersey said.

The same goes for all the clubs and beyond. Galleries are warmly

welcomed.

OK, who wants red? Green? Blue?