Steady Steve

Bryce Alderton

At age 11, Steve Collins received the OK to remove the braces he wore

to stabilize muscles and limbs which had weakened with the polio

inside his body.

Once free from the disease’s potentially fatal consequences,

Collins migrated toward golf courses and he has been strolled the

fairways ever since.

The 52-year-old Newport Beach resident’s golf feats take him to

Newport Beach Country Club to join fellow Big Canyon Country Club

teammates Bob Lovejoy (Director of Golf), Will Tipton (men’s club

champion) and Sally Holstein (women’s champion) for Wednesday’s

revamped Jones Cup beginning at 1 p.m.

Collins won Big Canyon’s senior championship for the first time

last August to qualify for this year’s Jones Cup, which pits

foursomes from each of the four private clubs in Newport-Mesa (Mesa

Verde Country Club, Santa Ana Country Club, Newport Beach Country

Club and Big Canyon Country Club) in an 18-hole best-ball formula.

But Collins is hardly a stranger to the victory scene at Big

Canyon.

The environmental engineer and father of three who runs his own

company in Newport Beach has five Big Canyon men’s club championship

titles to his credit, including two wins 10 years apart in 1989 and

‘99. He missed winning another men’s title by one stroke in 2000.

And as of last week, Collins, who joined Big Canyon 24 years ago,

was gunning to become the club’s first three-time winner of the

Presidents Cup, a net match-play event.

“I’m playing some, but not nearly as much as I used to,” said a

modest Collins, who walked-on at Stanford and made the men’s golf

team as a sophomore, a year after PGA and Senior Tour winner Tom

Watson graduated, after playing golf at South Hills High in West

Covina.

Collins qualified for the United States Amateur held at Shoal

Creek Golf & Country Club in Birmingham, Ala., in the late ‘80s

before moving to Newport Beach.

“That was back when I was playing more golf, better golf,” said

Collins of his U.S. Amateur experience.

Collins competed in the first Jones Cup in 2000 with then-head pro

Kelly Manos held at this year’s venue, Newport Beach Country Club.

Collins said he hadn’t played the course many times, but looked

forward to teaming with Holstein, Lovejoy and Tipton.

“It will take quite a few under par, but how many, I couldn’t

guess,” Collins said when asked to make a prediction. “I think people

will be aggressive and firing for birdies.”

Holstein and Collins spotted each other at Big Canyon on Thursday

and discussed a team color all four players could wear.

The details of that conversation, however, remained a secret,

Collins said.

“Let’s just say we’ll be ready for them.”