CALLING THE SHOTS:

You might have never heard of the Jones Cup. Last year, there was good reason to think nothing of it.

The Jones Cup, essentially the Ryder Cup on a much, much smaller scale, took place in September. During high school football season.

Even though it’s the Daily Pilot’s baby, that’s a no-no.

Nevertheless, the Jones Cup went on. It was played. It was covered. And, Big Canyon Country Club recaptured the championship, winning its fifth title in the eight years of the tournament that features the five best players from the four country clubs in the Newport-Mesa area.

Jones Cup 2007 actually went down as one of the best. Three measly strokes separated the four clubs. Using the best-ball format, just as the Jones Cup will use this year, Big Canyon scored 65 to win. Mesa Verde and Newport Beach finished with 66 and Santa Ana, which has never won a Jones Cup, had 68.

Today the ninth annual Jones Cup will take place at Newport Beach Country Club and the 20 golfers in the event will hope to top last year’s dramatics.

This year’s Jones Cup is already off to a great start. Being that the Jones Cup is in July, early July no less, the event will be fully covered by this newspaper. Just like the old days, or at least before I became sports editor, apparently.

But that’s not the only reason this year’s Jones Cup is showing promise. The Jones Cup people have been working hard to make this event count.

They threw out a bonus for the top two amateurs of the event. That’s a good thing.

For the past two years, the top two amateurs of the Jones Cup received the opportunity to play in a Mercedes-Benz championship tournament in Hawaii.

But the trip was messing with the locals’ amateur status, so they did away with it.

So this year, like every year, bragging rights will be the supreme reward for the winners.

But the champs will also get a new trophy. This is 2008 and the Jones Cup trophy has caught up with the times. It looks like something special, as opposed to something you can drink beer out of.

Also, all the players will have a chance to win a car from Fletcher Jones Motorcars. But that chance is as good as the Daily Pilot providing all-out coverage of a small, local golf tournament during the month of September.

The Jones Cup players can win a new car if they sink a hole-in-one in either the eighth hole or the famed No. 17.

If it happens, we’ll be there to write about it.

STEVE VIRGEN may be reached at (714) 966-4616 or by e-mail at steve.virgen@latimes.com.