Newport sizzles to finish line

S.J. Cahn

Newport Beach Country Club captured its first Jones Cup on Wednesday,

pulling away from the competition on the back nine with four birdies

over the final four holes as the host team finished at 5-under 66.

The members of the team -- head pro Paul Hahn, men’s champion Jeff

Wright, senior champion George Dahl and women’s champion Debbie

Albright -- didn’t know it, but they sealed the win on the short

par-5 15th, where both Hahn and Dahl carded birdies in the two

best-ball format, dropping their team score from 1-under to 3-under.

From there, not only did they not look back, they looked lower and

lower. Hahn added an insurance birdie on the course’s signature 17th

hole with a curling, 20-foot putt, and Dahl finalized the day with a

birdie on the par-5 18th.

For the winners, the revised Jones Cup format, which combines the

former Tea Cup Classic women’s competition with the men from

Newport-Mesa’s four private country clubs (Mesa Verde Country Club,

Santa Ana Country Club and Big Canyon Country Club, along with

Newport Beach), proved the right formula. All four contributed,

Albright with a birdie into the wind on the tough par-4 sixth and

pars throughout the day and Wright as the team’s steady, go-to guy

who birdied both the first and 10th holes to jump-start his team and

knocked in clutch par putts on nearly every hole.

Wright, who won Newport Beach’s club championship in June in

tearful fashion as he thought of his late father, came close to a

repeat of the scene once the victory was secured.

“If he was here right now, he wouldn’t be able to contain

himself,” Wright said of his father, Jack, who passed away last

October. “I wish my dad was here right now.”

A bit of his father was with him. Wright carried a book of his

father’s matches and a scorecard from 1993 during the round.

But it wasn’t good luck that won the day. The team was prepared

for Jones Cup V.

Wright and Albright, who had never played together before, had a

friendly nine-hole competition Tuesday to get rid of the jitters and,

Albright said, so she could prove to Wright she could keep up with

him.

“And I was intimidated by her beauty,” Wright quickly added.

The foursome also had at least an edge when it came to knowing the

course, especially greens that were both unusually tough and just

plain unusual.

“Those were some pins I hadn’t seen,” Hahn said, adding that, with

such difficult placement, his team’s familiarity with the greens

probably was an advantage.

“I thought the scores would be a lot lower,” Hahn said.

Like their competitors, Newport Beach narrowly missed a number of

putts -- on the third, seventh, eighth, 10th and 13th -- that would

have dropped their score.

The team started off well as Wright’s second shot from the rough

on the par-4 No. 1 carried a greenside bunker and rolled down toward

the hole. He knocked in the birdie putt before a crowd of about 20

people that, throughout the day, fluctuated to as many as 50.

They then went four holes shooting pars, including a par-saving

up-and-down by Wright on the par-4 No. 2 and two narrowly missed

birdie tries by Hahn and Dahl on the course’s longest hole, the par-5

No. 3.

On the sixth, Albright’s second shot, a long iron, landed on the

green, to raised fists and a high-five from Wright. She drained the

birdie putt to send the foursome to 2-under.

The group’s worst hole of the day was the par-4 ninth. Both Wright

and Albright were well left, forcing them to salvage shots from under

the trees. Dahl’s par kept the hole from being a 2-over tragedy.

They would earn one other bogey on the day, on the par-4 14th, but

they were never in such danger.

With the bogey on the ninth, the team made the turn at 1-under 34.

The 10th played out as the first had, with Wright knocking in a

birdie putt after Albright just missed hers.

“Jeff, way to go partner,” Albright cheered.

“Great birdie, great birdie,” Dahl added as the team took the lead

at 2-under and began to show more flashes of emotion.

Following three pars, the team dropped back into a tie with Santa

Ana after the 14th.

And then they teed up at the 15th, and everything changed.

Hahn and Dahl’s birdie could hardly have been more different.

Hahn’s second shot sailed onto the green, while Dahl’s got caught in

the wind, hooking to the left where he faced a tough pitch over the

left greenside bunker.

He nailed the pitch to within inches of the hole, tapping in for

birdie. Hahn followed with a strong two-putt across most of the

green.

The team was at 3-under. No other team would get that far under

par for the day.

“All in all, I think it was a pretty good team effort,” said

Albright, who won the Tea Cup Classic on her home course in 2001.

“Everyone tried to contribute to the best of their ability,” Dahl

said. “We just knew we had to keep playing. The other teams are very

good teams.”

All four praised the change in format that brought such four very

good teams together.

“In years to come, the clubs will stand behind their teams more,”

Hahn predicted. “And it’s definitely more fun for the four of us.”