Another tough round for SACC

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SANTA ANA — Santa Ana Country Club finished the way it started the Jones Cup. Dead last.

Santa Ana fell way short of winning its first Jones Cup. Playing on its home course mattered very little Wednesday.

The drinks the bartender poured afterward were as cold as Santa Ana’s putting game on the back nine. Santa Ana finished nine-under-par 135, five strokes back of the winner, Mesa Verde Country Club.

Mike Reehl, the golf professional at Santa Ana, adjusted the pins for the 10th annual Jones Cup. He placed them mostly in the middle, making them very accessible.

“I think it’s more fun for the gallery to see birdies than it is to see pars and bogeys,� said Reehl, whose team produced the largest gallery, close to four dozen people.

Too bad the fans saw the home team produce the fewest birdies out of the four country club teams competing in the two-best-ball format.

For 18 holes, fans followed the action, supporting Santa Ana. Some drove carts. The rest walked like the golfers.

The quintet of Reehl, club pro Geoff Cochrane, men’s club champion Boyd Martin, women’s champion Liz Slater and senior champion Chris Veitch got off to a strong start.

The front nine put Santa Ana at six-under, a better beginning than at last year’s Jones Cup. Thank Martin, who birdied Nos. 2, 3 and 6.

On the scorekeeper’s board, above the rounds and scores, it read “9th annual Jones Cup.� It was a gaffe, but Santa Ana didn’t mind. For a moment, Santa Ana found itself in contention, just like last year.

On the turn, things turned upside down for Santa Ana.

“Last year, we were crummy on the front,� said Reehl, whose team in 2008 rallied to force a three-team playoff before losing to Big Canyon Country Club. “[Wednesday], we were pretty good on the front and we were crummy on the back.�

Reehl points to No. 11, a par-three hole, as the momentum swinger.

He and Slater missed birdie putts, Reehl from three feet out and Slater from four feet. The two recorded pars.

Seven-under through 13 holes, just three strokes behind the leader, a cart drove through the fairway. The cart caused a delay on No. 14.

Bad luck ensued. The cart turned out to be a black cat.

The birdies disappeared and so did Santa Ana’s chance to remain in the hunt.

“We just kept making pars, a lot of pars,� said Reehl, whose only birdie on the back nine came on the final hole, which Veitch also birdied. “We just kind of lost our mojo.�

Santa Ana needed a miracle. A hole in one on No. 14, a par-three hole, someone wins a new Mercedes and Santa Ana is back in the thick of it.

No one managed to make it in two shots.

Things began to get away from the hosts. On No. 17, Cochrane drove a shot and the ball landed in the dirt, next to a concrete pathway, and in front of trees.

Cochrane’s next shot hit the tree, ricocheting back toward him and over his head. Visibly upset, Cochrane never retrieved the ball. He just glared at the area where it traveled and walked toward the green.

Standing nearby was the scorekeeper. He also grew frustrated, more because of his back than keeping track of a last-place team.

“I just volunteered and they asked me to pick a number from one to four,� said Hayden Swift, an incoming freshman at Estancia High. “I picked No. 1 and they said, ‘You got Santa Ana!’�

The number Swift chose failed to match Santa Ana’s finish.