All dressed up for Jones Cup

Bryce Alderton

Team unity has spread throughout the halls of Newport Beach Country

Club for this year’s refurbished Jones Cup, so much so that each

golfer of the foursome will be dawning team shirts.

The shipment arrived Wednesday and inside were slate-blue shirts

for the three men (head professional Paul Hahn, men’s club champion

Jeff Wright and senior club champion George Dahl) and a white shirt

for women’s club champion Debbie Albright.

“If we don’t play well, we certainly will be the best-dressed

team,” Hahn said. “This is special.”

Hahn is right.

Wednesday’s revamped Jones Cup, beginning at 1 p.m. at Newport

Beach Country Club, is like nothing seen involving community golf in

Newport-Mesa.

Newport Beach Country Club’s four standouts will compete against

foursomes from the other three private clubs in Newport-Mesa (Mesa

Verde Country Club, Santa Ana Country Club and Big Canyon Country

Club) in an 18-hole better-ball championship that ushers in another

level of community golf in this area.

The latest Jones Cup combines the best of the former Jones Cup --

for the men -- with the ladies’ Tea Cup Classic.

With Hahn and Albright, Newport Beach Country Club brings a wealth

of experience to this year’s event, in which each foursome will count

the two best balls per hole.

Hahn played in all four former Jones Cup events while Albright

competed in each of the seven Tea Cup Classic championships,

including a win in 2001 on her home course.

Wright, though, is no stranger to the Jones Cup.

The former Corona del Mar High golf star teamed with Hahn in the

2002 event at Big Canyon Country Club, when the hosts won the second

of their three former Jones Cup titles.

Wright, named the Los Angeles Times Orange County Player of the

Year as a CdM junior in 1982, became eligible for this year’s

championship when he won his first men’s club title in June. Wright

battled tears throughout the four rounds while thinking about his

86-year-old father, Jack, who passed away in October after a bout

with throat cancer.

Wright knows Newport Beach Country Club well. He won the club’s

junior championship seven times.

Dahl, claimed his second senior club championship (golfers 55 and

older) in June when he sank a 10-foot birdie putt on the first

playoff hole, the par-4 first, to win a playoff with Dick Sinay.

Sinay and Dahl shot the same scores for both rounds (76-81).

Hahn said Dahl regularly plays Wednesdays and takes many golfing

trips. Hahn got in a practice round before work Wednesday, but said

he has played only 10 times since making his debut in March’s Toshiba

Senior Classic, the annual PGA Champions Tour stop at Newport Beach

Country Club.As for any home-course advantage, Albright said Newport

may have a slight edge on the greens, but added that all players will

have to work hard to succeed.