Golf column: Ladies are ready for Tea Cup Classic

Richard Dunn

After coming full circle with the Tea Cup Classic last year at Big

Canyon Country Club, the locally famous women’s golf creme de la creme is

starting Round 2 and will be ready to serve on July 27.

Who would have thought, a silly idea to invite the four ladies club

champions in the Daily Pilot circulation for an 18-hole showdown, would

come this?

With the four private country clubs rotating each summer as host site,

we’re returning to Newport Beach Country Club for Tea Cup Classic V in

the Fletcher Jones Motorcars/Daily Pilot Club Championship Series.

For the first time out, 1997, hundreds turned out to gallery at

Newport Beach as Big Canyon’s Selby Schriber captured the inaugural

silver tea set, a prize which has since been modified, primarily because

of the dominance of Santa Ana Country Club’s Marianne Towersey, who will

try to win her fourth straight Tea Cup.

Last year, when Towersey walked off the 18th green after a playoff

victory over Newport Beach’s Debbie Albright, she was already thinking

ahead.

“Actually, I’ve never won (the Tea Cup) at Newport Beach Country Club,

and I love that golf course,” Towersey said after winning her third

straight Tea Cup.

Towersey, Albright and Mesa Verde Country Club’s Denise Woodard all

return as invited guests of Tea Cup Classic V after winning their

respective club championships, while Big Canyon Country Club’s Olivia

Slutzky joins the field for the first time.

Albright, who won this year’s Newport Beach title by 19 strokes,

extended her streak of consecutive club championships to six.

Dee Dee White, Newport Beach’s all-time champion with 17 titles, is

the club’s record holder for consecutive titles with nine (1967 through

‘75). Towersey and White are tied for the all-time lead in club

championships (men or women) among the four Newport-Mesa clubs.

Towersey will be shooting for her record 18th Santa Ana club

championship in 2002.

Towersey also won Tea Cup Classic titles in 1998 at Santa Ana Country

Club and ’99 at Mesa Verde Country Club by seven strokes each.

Last year in Tea Cup Classic IV at Big Canyon, Towersey received the

first perpetual trophy from the Daily Pilot, along with a bouquet of

roses from Big Canyon.

Slutzky, playing only her third summer of competitive golf, lowered

her handicap from double digits to 3.5 in about a year, then claimed her

first Big Canyon women’s title in April by 26 strokes.

Slutzky, at age 33, qualified last October for the Women’s U.S.

Mid-Amateur Championship. She will add an interesting twist to the Tea

Cup foursome.Albright last year showed consistent length and accuracy off

the tee and in the fairway, and made only one bogey in the her final 12

holes before the playoff and played the entire round knocking at the

door.

“She’s a terrific player,” Towersey said of Albright. “It was exciting

and so close, and it was so close for third place, as well.”

Woodard, a six-time Mesa Verde champion who finished second in the ’99

Tea Cup on her home course, captured third place last year, thanks to

pars at 15 and 18. Big Canyon’s Colette Taormina finished fourth.

The Estancia High Eagle Golf Classic is Monday at Costa Mesa Golf &

Country Club. The format is a four-person best-ball scramble. The cost is

$380 per foursome or $95 per player, which includes greens fees, cart,

dinner and prizes.

The event is one of the school’s most important fund-raisers of the

year. Details: (949) 951-5435.

Nearly $165,000 was raised for Childhelp USA in last month’s golf

tournament at Pelican Hill Golf Club, where celebrity host Rich Saul, the

former All-Pro center for the Rams, was joined by former teammates Reggie

Doss, Lawrence McCutcheon, Merlin Olsen, Vince Ferragamo and Dennis

Harrah.

Mehdi Eftekari of the Four Seasons Hotel brought along some friends in

our group, including former U.S. Secret Service agent Lee Wagoner, who

knew the layout at Pelican Hill’s Ocean North course well because of his

years on former President Bush’s detail. Wagoner said Bush often played

at Pelican Hill after it opened in November 1991.

Saul, a speaker Tuesday night at the All-Star Sports Banquet for Mr.

Irrelevant XXVI at the Newport Beach Marriott, serves the charity circuit

well. Childhelp USA is expected to host its 20th anniversary event next

year.

The Orange County Chapter of Childhelp USA is based in Newport Beach.

Childhelp USA was founded in 1959 and is dedicated to the treatment,

prevention and research of child abuse and neglect.

Richard Dunn’s golf column appears every Thursday.