Sargent, Mesa Verde play host role

Tom Sargent, head professional at Mesa Verde Country Club, which will play host to the seventh Jones Cup on Thursday at 1 p.m., said there are two ways one can look at a supposed home-course advantage.

For while Sargent and his four teammates certainly know the ins and outs of the Mesa Verde layout, that familiarity breeds expectations.

“Everybody expects you to win,” said Sargent, whose tongue-in-cheek delivery is as smooth as his backswing.

Sargent, who along with Newport Beach Country Club head professional Paul Hahn and Big Canyon Country Club Director of Golf Bob Lovejoy has played in each of the previous six Jones Cup matches, knows what it takes to win this event.

He and partner Pete Daley won the inaugural Jones Cup at Newport Beach Country Club in 2000.

The format then, as well as three subsequent years, featured two-man teams from each of the four Newport-Mesa private clubs, which include Santa Ana Country Club.

In 2004, the club women’s champion and senior champion were added to the mix.

Last year, a fifth player, a club professional, was added.

“Pretty soon, the entire club will be playing,” quipped Sargent, who has been the head professional at Mesa Verde for 11 years. “I don’t think the format is really all that important. I just think it’s fun to get out there with the other clubs and compete.”

Mesa Verde will hope to compete with a lineup that includes three Jones Cup veterans.

In addition to Sargent, men’s club champion Steve Rhorer is playing in his third Jones Cup. A career amateur, Rhorer also represented Mesa Verde in 2003 and 2004.

Rhorer and Sargent teamed to finish second in 2003, one shot behind Bob Lovejoy and Will Tipton from Big Canyon.

Rhorer, who played collegiately at UC Santa Barbara, also won 11 men’s club championships at Virginia Country Club in Long Beach, Sargent said.

Brett Brummett, a former star at Huntington Beach High and UCSB, will be making his second Jones Cup appearance.

Sargent’s No. 1 assistant, Brummett spent time on professional mini tours, before joining the staff at Mesa Verde.

“He can whack the ball and really move it out there,” said Sargent, who taught Brummett in high school. Madeline Campbell is filling in for women’s champion Akemi Khaiat, who is no longer a member.

Campbell lost in a sudden-death playoff to Khaiat, who won five club titles at Mesa Verde, as well as three more at Newport Beach Country Club. Campbell is making her Jones Cup debut.

“[Campbell] is a very good player who is playing very well right now,” Sargent said. “She plays a lot of national United States Golf Assn. events and has played in the senior state amateur tournaments.”

Tom McGreevy, the reigning club senior champion, is also making his first Jones Cup appearance. He won the men’s club championship in 1991, ’93 and ’95.

“This was his first senior club championship,” said Sargent, who considers McGreevy another long hitter. “He’s a big dude, who really grinds hard, so he is a great addition to our team.”