Golf: Can’t wait until Jones Cup II!

Richard Dunn

Next year, Mesa Verde Country Club head professional Tom Sargent

will no doubt walk to the Jones Cup with a target on his back.

The other pros and their amateur partners from Big Canyon Country

Club, Newport Beach Country Club and Santa Ana Country Club will not want

to be turned away again.

In the ultimate community pro-am, Sargent and Mesa Verde men’s club

champion Pete Daley mastered the tough field to win the inaugural Jones

Cup for Mesa Verde and stake claim to the perpetual trophy for the first

year.

“Next year, that’s all I can say,” Big Canyon head pro Kelly Manos

said, following Friday’s edge-of-your-seat finish in the Jones Cup at

Newport Beach Country Club, where Sargent’s near-impossible flop shot at

18 set up a short birdie putt to secure the Cup.

Sargent’s 60-foot birdie putt on No. 2 and his 45-footer on 16 were

spectacular sights, but his play at 18 was an incredible way to cap the

first-ever Jones Cup. His ball buried deep in the rough, Sargent flopped

out of trouble with a 57-degree wedge and, essentially, ended the Jones

Cup in dramatic style.

Most in the gallery (an estimated 300 fans) were whispering about a

playoff between Mesa Verde and Newport Beach, but Sargent wasn’t finished

with his show.

“We enjoyed playing in front of them,” Sargent said of the gallery.

The newly wed Paul Hahn (Newport Beach head pro) still had the

jitterbug in his legs from his Pebble Beach wedding reception in June. He

did a jig on the dance floor at NBCC not once, but twice. But who could

blame him?

First, Hahn chipped in for birdie from 30 feet on No. 9 and followed

it up with some fancy hoedown work.

Two holes later, Hahn drained a 40-foot birdie putt and started

hopping again, jumping in the air with sort of a scissors kick, then

pumping his fist as soon as his feet landed safely back down on the

earth.

After Hahn recovered on 17 with a remarkable chip shot from the hilly,

upper-left rough onto a tricky, two-tiered green with the pin on the top

shelf, Newport Beach member Pat Riley announced: “We’ve all been there

before and we know what that’s like. That’s a great shot!”

Part of the Jones Cup anticipation was the assuredness of witnessing

great golf shots, and the Great Eight did not disappoint.

“(The format) is perfect,” Santa Ana head pro Mike Reehl said. “I like

it, because it takes a lot of pressure off and it kept the scores real

close.”

One shot separated champion Mesa Verde (2-under 69) and runner-up

Newport Beach (70), and one stroke was the difference between Santa Ana

(even-par 71) and Big Canyon (72).

With the victory, Sargent also won his bet from “Vinnie the bartender”

at Mesa Verde. Don’t ask.

At one time or another, all the players had shining moments. Amateurs

Chris Veitch (Santa Ana), Bob Kraft (Newport Beach) and Steve Collins

(Big Canyon) -- all men’s club champions, like Daley -- each had a birdie

for the respective clubs.

For awhile, it looked like Santa Ana would shot par on every hole, a

testament to what Reehl has preached in the past to play “old man’s par.”

Santa Ana, however, bogeyed the par-4 No. 14 to ruin its streak of 13

straight pars, then birdied 15 to get back to even when Veitch reached

the par-5 hole in two and two-putted from 10 feet.

Kudos to NBCC members Bob Price and Benny Lujan, who served as

official scorers and carted around the scoreboards.

The day prior to the Jones Cup, Lujan played with Newport Beach

Country Club women’s champion Debbie Albright and won the club’s Sadie

Hawkins Tournament.

Price was part of the original sponsorship committee for the inaugural

Toshiba Senior Classic at Mesa Verde Country Club in 1995.

When Sargent arrived at the NBCC clubhouse for lunch with his partner,

Daley, in matching shirts, he was asked if he and Daley were ready for

the Jones Cup. Sargent said: “We’re a team. The hardest part was picking

out an outfit.”

After the names of the four competing clubs were pulled out of a glass

bowl to determine the two foursomes, it was decided that Mesa Verde would

play with Santa Ana. Then Sargent, longtime friends with Reehl, quipped:

“Can we play by ourselves?”

Once, Jones Cup rules official Jerry Anderson, President of Newport

Beach Country Club, turned to longtime compatriot Sargent and said: “Be

nice to me or I might not give you a drop.”

Part of the beauty of the better-ball gross format is watching players

“go for it” after their partners have already given the team a shot in

the middle of the fairway.

On the opening tee, Sargent pulled out his driver and tried clearing

the palm trees on the left and rolling it to the green 339 yards away on

hole No. 1, a par-4 dogleg left. He missed.

Can’t wait until Jones Cup II next year. It is expected to be held

during the same time of year at one of the clubs in the area.