Golf: Maggard wins Five Crowns of Golf

Richard Dunn

If “winning the Grand Slam” entails four major championships, what

do you call five in the same year?

For Ron Maggard of Big Canyon Country Club, he merely chalks it up to

luck.

But his time has come, and, when you’re hot, you’ve got the golf

course by the tail -- even after blowing a five-stroke lead with two

holes to play in the 2000 men’s club championship.

Maggard, 52, won his first Big Canyon club title last month, defeating

Will Tipton in an exciting four-hole playoff, after raising the stress

meter in regulation.

Prior to the men’s club championship, Maggard won the Big Canyon

senior men’s title, the match-play championship, the senior match-play

championship and the couples title with his wife, Linda.

Since it was the first time Big Canyon played its men’s club

championship separate from its senior championship, and it was the first

year of the senior men’s match-play championship, Maggard captured Big

Canyon’s first Grand Slam Quintet, or the Five Crowns of Golf.

“The good thing about these tournaments is that I get to play quite a

bit of golf,” a modest Maggard said. “All my pals were playing in the

(recent club championship), and I want to play with them anyway, and they

all signed up to play. So I signed up too and it happened to be my week.”

Most weeks this year have been Maggard’s.

But Maggard almost lost it in the final two holes of the men’s club

championship, which, these days, is an unofficial ticket into the Jones

Cup (each club from the area selects a pro-am team for the summertime

event, assumably the head professional and men’s club champion).

Maggard birdied 16 for a five-shot lead in the final round, but took a

dreaded snowman (an 8) on 17 to open the door for Tipton and defending

champion Steve Collins.

On 18, Maggard made bogey six and Tipton par as the championship ended

in a tie. Tipton actually had a 25-foot putt for birdie and the title,

but it wouldn’t fall, while Collins had a 15-footer that would’ve created

a three-way logjam at the top.

Maggard made par on the fourth playoff hole, a 409-yard par-4, while

Tipton three-putted.

“It was very hard to let Will back in,” Maggard said of his disastrous

17th hole. “Yeah, I could’ve folded (in the playoff after a shaky finish

in regulation), and I probably should have. But I hung in there.”

Maggard, who often plays with Danny Bibb at Big Canyon, said “the

young guys (at the club) are the best players. I just got lucky.”

In 1999, Maggard won his first Big Canyon senior men’s club title,

then repeated that feat in August in a three-round competition.

If the timing works out for Maggard next summer, he’ll probably play

in the second annual Jones Cup (date and site TBA), the popular men’s

pro-am for locals only in the Fletcher Jones Motorcars/Daily Pilot Club

Championship Series.

“Maybe I can play with Bob Lovejoy (Big Canyon Director of Golf),”

Maggard said.

Speaking of the Jones Cup, Pete Daley repeated as the men’s club

champion at Mesa Verde Country Club in 2000. It was held in late August.

Daley and Mesa Verde head pro Tom Sargent won the inaugural Jones Cup

in July at Newport Beach Country Club, when Sargent tapped in the winning

putt after a remarkable flop shot from deep in the rough.

In the Jones Cup, Daley saved par for his team with a big up and down

on No. 9 and helped Mesa Verde finish at 2-under 69 for a one-stroke

victory.

Daley, 60, didn’t start playing golf until age 41 and has never taken

a lesson in his life. But he has won the last three Mesa Verde club

championships.

Santa Ana Country Club and Newport Beach Country Club hold men’s club

championships in May.

Santa Ana CC hosted the second annual Tee Off for Technology Golf

Classic on Monday, an event that raised $75,000 for Newport Harbor High’s

main computer lab.

The golf tournament, played under the auspices of the Newport Harbor

Educational Foundation, last year enabled the National Blue Ribbon School

to purchase 33 new Pentium III 600 MHz systems for the 1999-’00 school

year.

Mitch Barker, tournament co-chairman, said the revenue this year will

go toward more desktop computers, laptops for teachers to check out and

disadvantaged students to take home, and multimedia projectors (large

classroom screens displaying a single computer screen).

On the golf course, Kurt Yeager, Marc Foster, Bill McCullough and Luis

Yeager formed the winning low-gross team at Tee Off for Technology II,

while Dwight Belden, Taylor Browman, Bob Penewell and Gary Robertson

captured low net.

Heavyweight boxer Francois Botha of Newport Beach played in the

Fletcher Jones Motorcars group.

Foster is the incoming president of Big Canyon Country Club.

Louisa Arnold of Santa Ana Country Club, and her husband, Phil, will

be the central figures in a poetry reading tonight at 7 at Park Newport.

Louisa, the author of “Tennis Ticklers” and a standout in the women’s

senior tennis ranks, will host the event in the main lounge. Champagne

and hors d’oeuvres will be served. There is no charge.

“It should be a fun evening,” said Arnold, who has been writing poetry

her entire life.

Jeff Schlicht is the new general manager at Santa Ana Country Club,

replacing Jack Downing.

Sponsored by Cal’s Caddyshack in Costa Mesa, Spooky Golf is back

again.

The unique, Halloween-based event involves golfing in total darkness,

with the exception of the glow-in-the-dark balls and lit-up flags.

Spooky brew, food and prizes for best costume are included in the

tournament Oct. 27 at the Back Bay Golf Course (pitch and putt) at the

Hyatt Newporter in Newport Beach. The event will be catered by the

locally famous Newport Rib Co. Details: (949) 646-7714.

Richard Dunn’s golf column appears every Thursday.