Golf: Towersey’s game getting better, proves age theory wrong

Richard Dunn

As we enter golf’s summer season, Marianne Towersey of Santa Ana

Country Club is already sizzling.

Shattering the accepted country club theory that amateurs reach their

playing peak between ages 25 and 35, Towersey’s game has not only

steadily improved, but her scores are lower than ever as she approaches

her 50th birthday in January.

“I am playing better than ever before, no doubt about it ... knock on

wood,” said Towersey, whose recent hot streak includes winning the

Women’s California State Championship for private clubs at Alta Sierra

Country Club in Grass Valley near Sacramento.

Towersey, the two-time defending Tea Cup Classic champion and widely

considered the top female amateur in the area, won the same state

championship in 1981 when she was pregnant with her son, Patrick, “who’s

going off to college (in the fall),” she told the awards/dinner crowd

during her acceptance speech two weeks ago.

At Alta Sierra, Towersey defeated Corey Weworski (Shadowridge) in the

36-hole finals, 1 up. In the semifinals, Towersey beat Candy Meyers

(Glendora), who knocked off Towersey in the finals of the Southern

California Championships last summer at Mission Viejo Country Club -- the

same day Towersey turned into a golf fitness queen and won Tea Cup

Classic III at Mesa Verde Country Club.

Further, Towersey won that warm August day in the Fletcher Jones

Motorcars/Daily Pilot Club Championship Series for women without her

putter.

It is the same long, Langer putter that has helped propel Towersey to the

top of her game -- though club golf lore would say otherwise.

“I attribute a lot of (my success) to going to the long putter,” said

Towersey, who will try to qualify this year for the U.S. Amateur and U.S.

Mid-amateur, the latter to be held at Big Canyon Country Club Oct. 3-8.

“If you can’t putt, you’re never going to be a great golfer. The long

putter has given me more confidence. If I start out (a round) poorly, I

just know I can come back by sinking a couple of putts.”

Towersey, a first-year assistant boys golf coach this season for Newport

Harbor High as the Sailors captured a CIF Southern Section title, started

with the long putter 2 1/2 years ago.

“I never had that (confidence) before, when my putting was inferior,” she

said. “Call it psychological or call it a putting cure, but I definitely

attribute (recent success) to the long putter.”

If Towersey qualifies for the U.S. Amateur Aug. 7-12 in Portland, Ore.,

and goes beyond the quarterfinals, she would begrudgingly forego her spot

in the fourth annual Tea Cup Classic Aug. 11 at Big Canyon.

When you’re a real good golfer, you have those kind of problems.

Inclement weather forced the postponement of the women’s club

championship at Santa Ana until late August, when reigning champion

Towersey will try to win her 16th club title in 19 years.

Towersey earned an automatic berth into the 2000 Tea Cup Classic -- held

at Big Canyon for the first time.

Tea Cup Classic IV will complete the intended four-year, four-club

rotation for host site in the event created to promote women’s golf and

bring the Newport-Mesa golf community closer together.

The four women’s club champions in the Daily Pilot’s circulation are

invited to play in the Tea Cup Classic, which, in past years, has

attracted a sizable gallery.

Tea Cup Classic IV is scheduled to feature Towersey, Debbie Albright

(Newport Beach Country Club), Denise Woodard of Mesa Verde Country Club

and Colette Taormina of Big Canyon Country Club. Taormina will make her

Tea Cup debut.

Towersey, ironically, set the Big Canyon course record with a 69 on April

25.

Towersey is among the featured golfers at the 2000 George Yardley

Celebrity Golf Classic June 26 at Newport Beach Golf Course to benefit

Newport Harbor’s golf program. The event, a.k.a. Yardley VII, raised over

$40,000 last year.

Event chairman Buck Johns said Wednesday that former Rams quarterback

Vince Ferragamo is also expected to play this year. Several golf pros

from the area, political figures and former athletes will also tee it up.

The tournament is hosted by the Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer and

Newport Harbor graduate (Class of ‘46) who became the first NBA player to

score 2,000 points in a season.

Since last year, the Yardley event has included an essay contest for

students and a community outreach for Olive Crest, which includes a

portable driving range for a golf clinic.

The outreach, which will start again in September, enjoyed success in the

first year as a six-month pilot program headed by USC-bound Mitch Johns.

Yardley, a former Stanford All-American, scored an NBA-leading 2,001

points for the Detroit Pistons in 1957-58 during his Hall of Fame career.

Pelican Hill Golf Club has named Ken Graves as Director of Agronomy and

Paul Cunningham (Ocean South course) and Paul Taylor (Ocean North course)

as new golf course superintendents.