Santa Ana scrambles for par

Richard Dunn

A wise golf professional once said during a photo shooting for the

Pilot Practice Tee in Golf Coast that the closer you get to the hole,

the easier it is to make putts.

Simple, yet profound.

It was so true for Santa Ana Country Club on Wednesday in the

Jones Cup at Newport Beach Country Club, where the hosts ran away

with the spoils at 5-under-par 66 in a memorable Jones Cup under the

new format of four in a group from each of the four clubs in this

newspaper’s circulation while counting the two best balls.

Santa Ana head pro Geoff Cochrane and his band of club champions

-- Marianne Towersey (ladies), Bill Welch (men) and Boyd Martin

(senior men) -- finished tied for second with Big Canyon Country Club

at 2-under 69, but it was more the future some members of the team

seemed to be interested in, especially Towersey, the 20-time women’s

club champion and the all-time leader in club titles in Newport-Mesa

history.

Towersey was “surprised” at the team scores and at the low number

of birdies in the event (21 among the four clubs, but only four for

Santa Ana). “I fell asleep,” Towersey said. “I was counting birdies,

then I started counting sheep.

“When I first thought about [the revamped Jones Cup format], I

thought the winning team would make about 11 birdies. That’s what I

expected. I think that’s what it will be next year at Santa Ana

Country Club.”

For Santa Ana, the team missed three up-close and personal putts

on the front nine that resulted in two bogeys and a par instead of a

birdie.

“We were scrambling to make par instead of getting birdie

chances,” Cochrane said. “The way Boyd Martin got us started, getting

close at [the par-4 No. 1] and then making birdie, I thought we’d

make more birdies. That’s a perfect observation, the fact that we

really didn’t have a whole lot of birdie chances.”

Each player made a birdie for Santa Ana. Martin, the club’s senior

men’s champion, stroked a 9-iron from 130 yards to within four feet

of the flag and drained the putt. “Yeah, and I was the furthest one

away from the pin,” Martin quipped on his way to the second hole.

Santa Ana stayed at 1-under until the par-3 hole No. 4, then it

lost another stroke on the par-4 No. 5 and suddenly the club was in

the black.

“We didn’t hit it close enough times,” Welch said. “We got off to

a good start with Boyd’s birdie, but we didn’t birdie the par-5 holes

that you need to birdie in this type of tournament format. I was

surprised that 5-under would win.”

Santa Ana got back to even when Cochrane birdied the par-4 No. 7,

which features the most severe green on the golf course, according to

Champions Tour statistics.

Cochrane, however, didn’t need to battle much of the green after

sticking a pitching wedge from 130 yards to within three feet of the

cup.

After making the turn at even-par 35, Welch rallied the troops

with a birdie at the par-4 No. 10, after ripping an 8-iron from 132

yards to about 11 feet, then sinking the long putt. Cochrane thought

the momentum would carry into the so-called birdie holes at 11, 12

and 13, but Santa Ana came up short each time.

“Momentum’s huge,” Cochrane said. “As a team there’s an aspect of

it and as an individual there’s an aspect of it.”

Santa Ana was tied with Newport Beach for the lead through 12

holes at 1-under, but Newport caught fire and Santa Ana scored only

one more birdie the rest of the way -- Towersey’s charging 15-footer

on the par-5 No. 15.

“We had our chances, but we just didn’t seem to make any putts,

which hurt us,” Martin said. “But the format is just terrific. It got

everybody involved. It’s a lot better than [the former Jones Cup

format of men’s club champion and club pro]. I was surprised there

were so many people from our club here to support us. There were

about 50 to 60 [in the gallery] that came over from Santa Ana.”