History is on their side

Tom Sargent wasted no time when asked about the role experience has

leading up to Tuesday’s Jones Cup.

Sargent, the head golf professional at Mesa Verde Country Club,

has competed in every Jones Cup since the inaugural Newport-Mesa

community golf event in 2000, including last year’s revamped

tournament.

It was his flop shot out of deep rough surrounding the 18th green

at Newport Beach Country Club that set up a winning birdie putt to

send the Mesa Verde team of Sargent and amateur partner Pete Daley to

the title in 2000.

And while Sargent didn’t discredit experience entirely, he said it

becomes harder to execute a shot conceived in the mind.

“Experience rapidly becomes antiquity,” said Sargent, the 1997 PGA

of America Professional of the Year. “You may know what to do but get

too old to do it.”

Still, Mesa Verde will have a mix of first-time Jones Cup

participants and seasoned veterans to the community golf

extravaganza, which tees off at 1 p.m. Tuesday at Santa Ana Country

Club.

Akemi Khaiat, four-time defending Mesa Verde Country Club women’s

champion, along with newly crowned men’s winner Matt Baugh, senior

champion Bryan Rolfe, Sargent and assistant pro Brett Brummett, will

comprise the fivesome that will face teams from Big Canyon, Santa Ana

and Newport Beach country clubs.

Each team will count its two best scores per hole in the event,

which upped the number of players from four to five per club from

last year. From 2000-03, the Jones Cup featured an amateur paired

with a member of each club’s golf staff in a better-ball of partners

format.

Newport Beach claimed the reformatted Jones Cup on its home course

last year with a 5-under-par 66 while Mesa Verde finished 1-under 70.

“I try to block that out,” Sargent quipped.

Baugh, Rolfe and Brummett make their Jones Cup debuts while Khaiat

joined Steve Rhorer, Dave Irwin and Sargent in last year’s event.

Khaiat, an accomplished player elected co-captain of the 1998

Japanese national team, shot 76 and 78 in her two Tea Cup Classic

appearances, finishing third and second, respectively, in 2002 and

2003. The 2003 event concluded the Tea Cup Classic’s seven-year run

as an 18-hole, stroke-play event pitting the women’s champions from

each of the four Newport-Mesa area clubs against one another.

Khaiat won the Mesa Verde title by 27 strokes in April, shooting

74 twice to go with a 75 in the four-round tournament. She has won

seven women’s club championships in Newport-Mesa -- Khaiat tallied

three straight victories at Newport Beach Country Club from 1992-94.

Rolfe claimed his first senior club championship in April, firing

a 7-over 149 in two rounds to edge Jan Brussel by two strokes.

Baugh claimed his first men’s club title Sunday, shooting

consecutive 72s after an opening-round 78 to finish four strokes

ahead in front of his nearest competitor.

Baugh, 35, who entered the final round two strokes off the lead,

birdied Nos. 10-12 in his final round to create space between him and

the rest of the field. The newest men’s club champion played at

Huntington Beach High, where Sargent said he earned Orange County

Player of the Year honors, before competing for San Diego State.

Brummett also played at Huntington Beach.

Sargent continues his three-year term as the director of the PGA’s

three-section district comprising Southern and Northern California

and Hawaii. He represents 3,500 PGA members, including teaching pros

and apprentices.

Sargent announced golfers’ names as they made the turn at the

ninth and 18th holes, and off the tee at Nos. 1 and 10, at the PGA

Championship two weeks ago. At the champions dinner held the Tuesday

of tournament week, Sargent spent a few moments talking with Tiger

Woods, ranked No. 1 in the world following his victory last weekend

at the NEC Invitational.

Woods won his age division four times in Yorba Linda Country

Club’s junior invitational, where Sargent was the head pro for 17

years before moving to Mesa Verde in 1995. During that time Sargent

got to know father, Earl, and mother, Kultida.

“She always made me laugh,” Sargent said. “She was marveling in

amazement at what her son had done.”

In speaking with Tiger, winner of this year’s Masters and British

Open, Sargent said he remains composed and modest, with a bit of

flair mixed in.

“He’s very relaxed, but there is a little mischief in him, a good

sense of humor,” Sargent said. “He’s always been so mature for his

age. He always appeared much older than the other kids and acted much

older. Tiger has never been one to boast. He’s always been down to

earth. He always wanted the clubs to do the talking and once he lets

the clubs do the talking, there isn’t much you can say.”

Kind of like Sargent’s flop shot on Newport’s 18th green in 2000.