Owning the Jones Cup

Bryce Alderton

Big Canyon Country Club and the Jones Cup have become synonymous with

each other the past three years.

Winning former men’s better ball of partners championship three

years in a row goes a long way in validating that claim.

The club, tucked in its own pocket of Newport Beach near Fashion

Island, has produced its share of golfers who have risen to the

challenge the past three Jones Cup events. This year, four players

will try adding to a streak while starting a new one in an event that

drastically changes community golf in Newport-Mesa.

Big Canyon Country Club will feature Sally Holstein (women’s club

champion), Steve Collins (senior club champion), Will Tipton (men’s

club champion) and Bob Lovejoy (director of golf) as they battle

foursomes from the other three private clubs (Santa Ana Country Club,

Mesa Verde Country Club, Newport Beach Country Club) from

Newport-Mesa in this year’s Jones Cup at 1 p.m. Wednesday at Newport

Beach Country Club.

Each foursome will count two best balls for each of the 18 holes,

a play on the previous Jones Cup era, when the men’s club champion

and a golf professional from each of the four clubs used the best

ball of the two on each hole.

A pair from Big Canyon Country Club won three of the four Jones

Cup championships. Lovejoy has teamed with three different partners

in the victories.

Last year Lovejoy and Tipton defeated Mesa Verde Country Club

amateur Steve Rhorer and head pro Tom Sargent by one stroke with a

3-under 68 at Mesa Verde.

Lovejoy teamed with Danny Lane, a former All-CIF Southern Section

quarterback at Laguna Beach High and minor league infielder for four

years in the 1990s, to claim Jones Cup II on their home course in

2002 by two strokes over Santa Ana Country Club. In 2001, Big

Canyon’s men’s club champion Ron Maggard and Lovejoy defeated host

Santa Ana following a three-hole playoff.

This year’s championship will, no doubt, involve more players and

Holstein and Collins both bring strong credentials.

In addition to the senior championship, Collins has won five Big

Canyon Country Club’s men’s titles while Holstein has claimed three

ladies club titles.

They each have experience in this community’s golf showcases.

Collins teamed with Big Canyon Country Club’ former head pro Kelly

Manos in the first Jones Cup in 2000 while Holstein competed in the

former Tea Cup Classic last year and in 1999.

The Tea Cup Classic, an 18-hole, stroke-play championship that

pitted the women’s champions from each of the four clubs against one

another, ended after its seventh edition last summer, so the enhanced

Jones Cup is, essentially, a combining of the prior two community

golf bonanzas.

The revised format suits Holstein just fine.

“I love partner events,” said Holstein, who will participate in

each of the four club’s ladies member/guest tournaments when she

plays in Mesa Verde’s event later this month. “In stroke play, if you

mess up a hole, it can put you out of the whole tournament.”

Holstein said there will also be “less stress.”

“It’s going to be fun, playing with the guys is going to be

wonderful,” Holstein said.

Bliss has seemed to follow Big Canyon Country Club after the Jones

Cup the last three years.