Newkirk still an ace

DON CANTRELL

Many golfers may dream of hitting a hole-in-one, but it generally

remains nothing more than a wishful picture.

Jim Newkirk, 67, a great baseball pitcher and football lineman

during the mid-1950s at Newport Harbor High and Orange Coast College,

never thought much about golf or a hole-in-one until after he had

turned 40.

His dad, Jim Sr., introduced him to golf and son Jim expressed

interest since he had become too old to play baseball.

A hole in one never emerged in his first 15 years of playing golf,

but the big magic came about 10 years ago, Newkirk said, when he was

playing at a club in Avila Beach, near San Luis Obispo.

Chances are fair that Newkirk never gave it much thought after

that exciting episode.

However, his name was glittering again on the links recently when

he scored his second hole-in-one at the Golf Club of Oklahoma in

Broken Arrow, near Tulsa.

One pleasing thought was that the Broken Arrow course was designed

by noted course designer Tom Fazio. It is a challenging course.

After viewing the fairway, Newkirk could easily assess it was a

downhill hole with a dogleg to the left and one lake on each side of

the dogleg. Not a simple task.

However, Newkirk pulled out his No. 3 iron and angled for the

hole, 177 yards away, on a par-3 course.

He finally peered down the way and, to his amazement, he saw the

ball roll right into the distant cup.

He still has the scorecard tucked away in an office desk drawer.

Although his golfing travels are now limited to the United States,

Newkirk had some colorful experiences in the 1980s when he chalked up

travels to Europe. He recalls playing the game in Spain, France,

Scotland and Ireland.

But today, Newkirk is closer than ever to golf, residentially. He

and his lovely wife Martha recently moved to a new golf course

development in Irvine called Shady Canyon Golf Club.

Newkirk wanted to update me on what he called an interesting

development in the Irvine area.

“The UC Irvine Anteaters baseball team was ranked as high as No. 7

in the nation and actually made it to the regional playoffs, losing

in the last inning to Arizona,” he said.

The team lost its coach [John Savage] last month to UCLA, he

reported, but was able to hire the No. 1 assistant from national

champion Cal State Fullerton [Dave Serrano] to replace him.

Newkirk believes Serrano is a bona-fide coach and should do well

with a team that is young and talented.

Newkirk, a UCLA baseball booster, said, “We helped build a top-10

baseball field three years ago and now we have a program on line to

add a top-notch clubhouse to the diamond area.

“In this day, it’s necessary to have all the good ‘digs’ in order

to attract skilled players. I made a lead gift and, so far, we’ve

raised about $700,000 toward a goal of $1,750,000, but $1 million

will get it started.”

During Serrano’s eight years at Fullerton, 24 pitchers were

selected in the major league draft. Serrano served as pitching coach

and a recruiter. He was also called one of the top assistant coaches

on the West Coast by Baseball America.

Newkirk had an outstanding pitching record from high school on

through Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and led Orange Coast to a statte

baseball title in 1956. His 1957 OCC team made it to the state

playoffs, but lost, 4-3, to Pasadena.

He was also a sterling lineman on the OCC football team of 1957,

one that stunned nationally top-ranked Santa Ana College, 13-7, and

captured the Eastern Conference championship when Steve Musseau was

head coach.