Creating his own Lane at Big Canyon

Richard Dunn

NEWPORT BEACH -- Once a trigger-happy quarterback for Laguna Beach

High and a former minor league baseball infielder, Danny Lane of Big

Canyon Country Club is now a member of the elite Jones Cup pro-am

field.

Lane, who starred on the gridiron and baseball diamond for the

Artists and grazed these pages regularly in the 1980s, focused his

attention on golf after a four-year career in professional baseball

and now finds himself in a position to tee it up in Jones Cup III

with Big Canyon Director of Golf Bob Lovejoy.

Big Canyon is the host and defending champion of the event, which

starts at 1 p.m. Friday with two foursomes playing a better ball of

partners format with galleries in tow.

“My father (Ron) gave me the foundation of golf as a youngster,”

Lane said. “I did all the sports, but I never played (golf) in high

school or college. I just played. And then after I finished my

(four-year minor league career in the Montreal Expos organization), I

zeroed in on golf.”

Lane, 32, won the Big Canyon men’s club championship last fall and

accepted an invitation to play in Jones Cup III, which will also

feature Gregg Hemphill and Santa Ana Country Club Director of Golf

Mike Reehl, Jeff Wright and Newport Beach Country Club head

professional Paul Hahn and Pete Daley and Mesa Verde Country Club

head pro Tom Sargent. Daley and Sargent captured the inaugural Jones

Cup in 2000.

Lovejoy played with Ron Maggard last year when Big Canyon defeated

host Santa Ana in a three-hole playoff. Maggard was unable to defend

his Big Canyon title in 2001, because he was stranded out of town

following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and could not fly home to

compete in the men’s club championship.

Lane, however, is no stranger to Big Canyon. His father, whose

company manages several golf courses, including Costa Mesa Golf &

Country Club, is a longtime Big Canyon member and standout.

And these days the father and son play together at least once a

week when they’re in town.

“We’re really lucky to play together,” Danny Lane said. “It’s a

nice a cross-section of people we play with. My friends play with us,

and his friends play with us. His friends are my friends. It’s a

great thing we have.”

Lane, who lives in Newport Beach and works at Costa Mesa Golf &

Country Club, was the pride of Laguna Beach High (Class of ‘88) under

football coaches Cedric Hardman and Lyman Olney.

A three-year letterman, Lane passed for 2,286 yards and 19

touchdowns his senior year in the fall of ‘87, completing 179 of 257

passes.

“We had a good offense back then, and the coach let us throw the

football,” said Lane, who tossed 53 touchdown passes and only 16

interceptions in his varsity career, completed 70% of his career

passes (485 of 694).

But it was baseball in which Lane had the brightest future. Even

though Laguna Beach wasn’t known as a baseball school, Lane went on

to play shortstop at UC Santa Barbara, then was drafted in the 20th

round by Montreal in June 1992.

Now, it appears Lane is on his way to another top-notch career

that requires a steady swing.

The Jones Cup, created by this sports section as part of the

Fletcher Jones Motorcars/Daily Pilot Club Championship Series, is

hosted on a rotating basis by the four aforementioned private country

clubs in the Daily Pilot circulation.

While the Jones Cup is designed as a stage for the area’s

high-profile pros and club champions, each club is responsible for

selecting its own pro-am team. The only standards are that the pro is

a full-time staffer and the amateur a dues-paying member at the club.

In addition to playing for community bragging rights and the

perpetual Jones Cup trophy, participants will be aiming for the flag

on the par-3 hole No. 7 at Big Canyon (193 yards), where a brand new

ML-320 Mercedes awaits any player sinking a hole-in-one.

The other three par-3 holes will also include prizes for an ace: A

trip for two to the PGA Village, a full set of Giant Golf irons and

two one-year memberships to 24 Hour Fitness.