Big Canyon earns another title

Bogey-free golf won the Jones Cup for Big Canyon Country Club on

Tuesday.

Not that it was as easy or simple as that.

Steady throughout the afternoon, the five-member team walked to

the 18th green with three players in reasonable position to par the

473-yard par-5 hole -- all it needed to capture the cup at a tidy

12-under-par 60, a shot better than Newport Beach Country Club.

Women’s champion Martha Redfearn first made her two-putt for par,

finishing out a blistering back nine 37 that helped seal the win for

Big Canyon in the two best-ball format

Senior standout Dave Quisling then rimmed out his par try, a far

shorter putt than either of the birdies he made at holes 6 and 7 to

help Big Canyon build an early lead.

And so it was left to head pro Clint Whitehill, who had just

missed the green with his second shot, a 200-yard 3-iron. His chip

had left him short, but within two-putt range. One lag and then a

calm foot-long finale, and the cup was back to Big Canyon for the

fourth time in the past five years.

Not that it was as easy or simple as that.

“Seventeen and 18, we made it interesting,” said director of golf

Bob Lovejoy. “We tested ourselves on 17 and 18, and the team really

came through.”

The five members of the team, which also including former men’s

champ Danny Lane, made it interesting throughout the day, bending but

never breaking.

They started strongly enough, with Lane making a five-foot birdie

putt on the 536-yard par-5 first hole. They jumped to 3-under with a

double-birdie by Lane and Whitehill on the 378-yard par-4 third hole.

And then they bent on holes four and five, two of the three

toughest on the course.

On the 423-yard par-4 fourth, both Redfearn and Lovejoy were still

off the green after their third shots. Lane and Whitehill were able

to scramble to save pars.

The same scenario played out on the fifth, a 417-yard par 4.

Redfearn narrowly missed a highlight moment when her birded chip

clipped the hole and shot past.

Lovejoy and Quisling managed short par putts, and the team walked

off the hole, audibly sighing with relief.

Then they rebounded at six and seven.

Quisling stuck his 5-iron on the 188-yard sixth 15 feet left of

the hole and snaked a sliding-right putt in for birdie.

The 390-yard par-4 seventh was no match for Lovejoy and Quisling,

though Quisling complained about his 163-yard approach shot, saying

he hit it thin.

“I don’t care how you got it there,” Lane told him. “I just like

it.”

The group then hung on until the 13th, with Whitehill barely

missing a birdie at the eighth, the team failing to capitalize on the

503-yard par-5 ninth and Whitehill just sneaking in a birdie on the

508-yard 10th. Lane then knocked his tee shot on the 150-yard 11th to six feet, and lipped in the putt.

“It tried to get out,” he cried as he went to pluck the ball from

the hole.

Following two more pars at the 337-yard 12th, a hole Lane had

called “a birdie hole” as he stepped to the tee, the fivesome stepped

up to the 368-yard par-4 13th, the second toughest hole on the

course.

For once this day, it would prove more easy and more simple than

that.

“Martha, fantastic!” Lane yelled after Redfearn landed a fading

fairway wood by the hole.

“Yeah, I knew there was one in there,” she responded.

Both then made birdies, taking the team to 10-under and in a tie

with Newport Beach, which had been rising up and falling back for the

past few holes.

But Big Canyon wasn’t finished. Lane snaked in a 12-foot birdie

putt on the 522-yard par-5 15th, the most impressive birdie of the

day given Lane’s tee shot had landed behind trees.

Big Canyon now was 10-under, tied with Newport Beach.

At this point, Big Canyon team members, who had remained intently

focused on their game, began eyeing the scores. As they hit into the

green at the 418-yard par-4 16th, the scores changed.

Newport had gone to 11-under.

Big Canyon learned the news as they walked to the green, where

they lingered over their putts longer than ever, each member offering

advice and thoughts.

But it was real-world experience that would prove the distance, as

Lovejoy used the read from Redfearn’s similar line to sink a 15-foot

birdie.

Big Canyon stood at 12-under. Now they just had to stand their

final test.

On the tee at the 192-yard par-3 17th, it looked like the team

might break.

Quisling, who teed off first throughout the day -- “We were just

doing fine. We didn’t want to change a thing,” Lovejoy said of their

strict order -- landed his shot on the green.

And then Lane missed. And then Lovejoy. And then Whitehill.

“No pressure on me boys,” Redfearn said as she stepped to her

shot.

It landed on the green. But her pressure wasn’t over.

Only Lane managed par.

So Redfearn stepped up to a crucial two-footer.

And made it.

“Never routine,” she said of the hole.

And then there was just the 18th left. An easy, simple finish to a

tough, well-fought victory.