GOLF ROUNDUP

MAJORS ACCOMPLISHMENT

The Newport Beach Country Club women recently held their 35th annual Mary K. Browne Tournament, one of the club’s four major tournaments for women.

Linda Green and Kathy Forde won the tournament with a low net over the field score of 138.5. Other winners were ? A flight: (gross) Gail Paoli and Karen Knoche, (net) Judy Muncy and Susan Ralston; B flight: (gross) Patti O’Desky and Sandy Brandenburg, (net) Lucy Mendicina and Louise Bellisimo; C flight: (gross) Elaine Lieb and Karen Whitaker, (net) Maxine Noble and Shawn Mastos.

DOUBLE EAGLE FOR AN EAGLE

Estancia High’s Greg Les shot a three-under par 32 during the Eagles’ match against Millikan on Tuesday, but that wasn’t his biggest accomplishment of the day.

Les made a double eagle on the 452-yard par 5 fifth hole at Costa Mesa Golf & Country Club’s Mesa Linda Course. The double eagle, of course, is considered the rarest shot in golf

TUCSON TROUBLE

The back nine at Tucson National Golf Club proved to be the undoing for former UC Irvine golfer Vinnie Poncino at last week’s Chrysler Classic of Tucson.

Poncino, who made the field for the tournament by winning a Monday qualifier, missed the cut after shooting a five-over par 152 the first two rounds.

In the first round, Poncino was at even par over the front nine, but triple-bogeyed the 17th hole. The following day, he started at the 10th hole and bogeyed four of the first eight holes before recovering to shoot one-under on the front nine.

COUNTDOWN TO TOSHIBA

Loren Roberts’ win streak came to an end and Jerry Pate got wet at the PGA Champions Tour’s Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am in Lutz, Fla., last week.

Pate fired a five-under 66 in the final round to win by one shot over Hale Irwin, Mark James and Morris Hatalsky at the TPC of Tampa Bay. It was Pate’s first victory since the 1982 Players Championship at TPC of Sawgrass and he celebrated just as he did back then, leaping into the lake around the 18th green.

Roberts was in the hunt Sunday before a bogey at the 16th took him out of contention. His fifth-place finish still keeps him atop the tour money leaders list.

The tour is off until next week, when it hits Valencia Country Club in Santa Clarita for the AT&T; Classic ? the final stop before the Toshiba Classic at Newport Beach Country Club, March 17-19.