Scoring for charity

Late Monday afternoon, as the Mesa Verde Classic charity golf tournament wound down, it was clear that the scores weren’t going to be the best the club had ever seen.

Mayor Allan Mansoor — a self-described “eternal beginner” — noted that the tournament was more about the fundraising. City Manager Allan Roeder admitted that he had just hit his first good shot of the day while playing the back nine. And a foursome of Costa Mesa fire fighters said they would have a great score if they were bowling.

But while most of the 132 registered golfers may not be headed to the professional tour any time soon, they did manage to raise about $80,000 in registration fees and underwriting to benefit the effort to redesign and renovate fields at four Costa Mesa schools.

Including the auctions, the event was on pace to finish the day with $100,000, according to Councilwoman Katrina Foley, who was largely responsible for organizing and promoting the tournament.

“Our goal was $200,000, but if we hit $100,000 I’ll be ecstatic,” Foley said.

Eventually the city hopes to come up with a set of plans for soccer and baseball fields at Costa Mesa High School, Davis Elementary School, TeWinkle Middle School and California Elementary School and remodel them. Roeder, who was the tournament’s honored guest for getting the ball rolling on the project, said that the money — although needed — was not as important as the statement made by the overwhelming turnout from the community.

“The number of people out here supporting this at a time when it’s so difficult just says untold volumes,” Roeder said.

Along with city dignitaries like council members, planning and parks commissioners and staff executives, the tournament drew a few local real estate developers.

Curt Olson, of Nexus Development Corporation, had a chance to look at the tentative field plans drawn up from the input of several youth sports leaders, school officials and city politicians just outside of the club house, where large, detailed posters were set up on easels. He even had a little advice for the city.

With projects like this, Olson said, it’s important to run them by engineers as soon as possible to get a handle on the cost, so that when it comes time to fund the project it doesn’t become prohibitively expensive on account of design ideas that could have been altered early on.

“Sometimes with city projects they get them designed and then they pass them off to the engineers and find out what it costs, but by then it’s too late,” he said.

The project is still in its fledgling stages. Plans have not been finalized and cost estimates haven’t been made, but officials think that it will be in the seven-figure range. Foley hopes to at least squeeze some portions of the project into the coming year’s budget.

ALAN BLANK may be reached at (714) 966-4623 or at alan.blank@latimes.com.