Local clubs hope to have good showing in the Jones Cup

Heidi Wright-Tennyson, the head professional at the Mesa Verde Country Club, has a thing for tradition.

She will lead her club in such an exercise on Tuesday, when it partakes in the 19th annual Jones Cup community golf tournament. Mesa Verde would certainly like to build upon a more recently established tradition, as the defending champions will be looking for their third straight tournament win.

Admittedly, Wright-Tennyson has some big shoes to fill. She came to the club in February, succeeding the revered Tom Sargent as the club’s head pro following his retirement.

“My passions are promoting the game of golf and the facility that I’m working for,” Wright-Tennyson said. “I’m very excited to be a part of this historic club. To follow Mr. Sargent, in my opinion, it’s an honor.

“I love traditional events, and this one obviously has a lot of tradition, so I’m looking forward to representing our facility and spending time with the team.”

Representing their respective clubs in the best manner possible comes standard when the five local clubs get together. It is Santa Ana’s turn to host the event this year, and the competitors are in for a great time at the club’s updated facilities.

Santa Ana has a brand-new golf course that has received rave reviews from the competitors.

“I think it’s a real treat this year that we were able to play at Santa Ana Country Club,” Big Canyon captain Robert Pang said. “There’s a new golf course in Santa Ana, which is a treat for all of us.”

Santa Ana director of golf Geoff Cochrane said the new golf course takes on an old-style look with its architecture, adding that the club is excited to showcase the course on Tuesday.

“It’s more natural,” Cochrane said. “As an example the tee boxes and the fairways all kind of run together. There isn’t any designated tee boxes. It’s more like rolling fairways, so there’s less ring lines.

“We’ve also added about 35 acres of what we’re calling native grass, which is we seed it and everything, but the intent is that it is very low maintenance, very low water usage. There’s less to maintain, and we’re using less water as a club by doing that.”

Newport Beach captain Robbie Maurer said that his initial impression of the course is that the greens hold the key to whether or not a player has a good round.

“The greens are big, they’re undulated, lots of slopes,” Maurer said. “They’re going to be fast. They’re just different than any place around.”

As much as the Jones Cup brings the community together, it also creates competitive, albeit friendly, rivalries.

“There is a trophy for that, and it’s a little bit of bragging rights,” Pang said. “You want to have that trophy at your shop or club. It’s always fun.”

Each club gets five players – a captain, a professional, a men’s champion, a ladies’ champion and a senior champion.

The tournament is played with the two-best-balls-out-of-five format, meaning the lowest two scores recorded by a club’s five-golfer contingent at each hole will be put on the scorecard.

“There’s not a ton of pressure on one person unless everyone else is playing [poorly],” Newport Beach professional Andrew Alderdice said. “It usually spreads itself around, everyone gets a birdie or two, hopefully, and we can keep our good scores going.”

Shady Canyon director of golf Brian Gunson said that his club started coming to the Jones Cup about six years ago, and the tournament has brought added intrigue to the club championships.

“We like the build-up,” Gunson said. “It’s created a little competition with the men’s championship, the ladies’ championship and the senior championship.

“They all know what it means to win the championship at each club, but they also know that it is an invitation to play in the Jones Cup. They all look forward to it, very much so.”

Gunson, who is the captain of Shady Canyon, said that all five competitors for the club have experience playing in the Jones Cup – Kirk Manley (professional), Kevin Baker (men’s champion), Robyn Puckett (ladies’ champion) and Charles Kavanaugh (senior).

Another aspect of the Jones Cup that the players tend to appreciate is the live scoring. Scoreboards will be placed throughout the grounds, allowing the clubs to know their standing at any point in the round.

As the host, Santa Ana will have the last tee time (12:40 p.m.). Santa Ana has never won the Jones Cup.

Here are the other tee times: Shady Canyon, noon; Mesa Verde, 12:10 p.m.; Newport Beach, 12:20 p.m.; Big Canyon, 12:30 p.m.

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