Golf: Welcome to the gallery

Richard Dunn

Making par will be the biggest challenge Friday for the ladies in

the locally famous Tea Cup Classic, as the toast of the coast in women’s

golf is celebrated at Big Canyon Country Club.

The next toughest assignment will be staying calm in front of a

gallery.

But whoever captures the first perpetual trophy from Tea Cup Classic

IV will probably have a handle on both, though the teeth at Big Canyon --

severe greens and hilly fairways -- can throw a wretch into anybody’s

game.

And, part of the beauty of the Tea Cup Classic, is the individual

stroke play from the four women’s club champions in this newspaper’s

circulation, battling in an 18-hole shootout for the right to be crowned

Daily Pilot golf queen for a day.

Five-time Newport Beach Country Club champion Debbie Albright, will

play in her fourth Tea Cup Classic. But she still doesn’t think you ever

get used to playing in front of numerous people.

Prior to the inaugural Jones Cup last month, the new men’s best-ball

pro-am under the umbrella of the Fletcher Jones Motorcars/Daily Pilot

Club Championship Series that started the Tea Cup Classic in 1997,

Albright quipped: “I’d like to go watch that (Jones Cup) and go see how

nervous those guys get ... those men have a pro with them and it’s

best-ball (gross), which would make it a lot more relaxing.”

While the Tea Cup Classic was intended to represent community golf, it

has seemingly evolved into other unforeseen facets, such as the healthy

and friendly rivalries among clubs and the front-page promotion of four

otherwise ordinary women’s club champions.

It draws members from all four private clubs and has occasionally

enticed the interest of the non-golf crowd. For example, in 1998 and ‘99,

the Victorian Tea Society arriving with a group of ladies dressed in

1890s costumes, complete with parasols.

And, each year Mesa Verde Country Club champion Denise Woodard has

played in the Tea Cup Classic, her parents drive out from Hemet to watch

the foursome and cheer for their daughter.

“They never really even watched golf or anything (prior to the

inaugural Tea Cup Classic in ‘97),” Woodard said. “For people who don’t

play the game to come out and see me hit little tiny white balls along

the (golf course), without having any concept of the game, is pretty

exciting. They really look forward to it.”

There are also folks in the Newport-Mesa area simply fascinated with

the idea and love watching the ladies play in the easygoing environment.

There are those who come to see the golf courses: Three of the four

private country clubs in the area are equity-owned clubs, and, unless you

have a reason to be there, you generally don’t get the opportunity to

walk the 18 holes.

“I heard a lot of people want to go over there to Big Canyon Country

Club,” Albright said. “A lot of people haven’t seen Big Canyon. You’ve

got to get through that guarded gate.”

Of the four clubs in the Daily Pilot area -- Big Canyon, Mesa Verde,

Newport Beach and Santa Ana Country Club -- Big Canyon is the most

difficult to play. On Friday (2 p.m. tee time), it will play 5,605 yards

from the red tees.

Two-time defending Tea Cup Classic champion and the reigning Santa Ana

women’s club champion, Marianne Towersey of Newport Beach, has already

had a busy week.

She arrived back in town Monday from Minneapolis, where she visited

relatives and her husband, Brian, played in a golf tournament.

Towersey also brought her golf clubs on the trip, but they didn’t make

it to John Wayne Airport when she got home.

The next morning, Towersey was out the door by 5:30 a.m. to play in

the Women’s Southern California Golf Association Championships at Oakmont

Country Club in Glendale. But without her clubs.

Later that afternoon, Towersey got her clubs back and her life was

back on par.

Selby Schriber, a former Big Canyon member who captured six straight

women’s club championships from 1992 to ‘97, won the inaugural Tea Cup

Classic at Newport Beach Country Club.

Towersey won the next two, at Santa Ana and Mesa Verde, and will try

for a three-peat this year.

Towersey, who has captured 15 of the last 18 women’s club

championships at Santa Ana and will try for her 16th title on Aug. 25,

shot 3-under-par 69 to set a ladies course record at Big Canyon on April

25.

Woodard, Albright and Colette Taormina (Big Canyon) will try to

dethrone Towersey as the Newport-Mesa Queen of Golf in the Tea Cup

Classic.

Big Canyon Director of Golf Bob Lovejoy will serve as the Tea Cup

Classic’s rules official. Admission to the Tea Cup is free. The weather

-- the only thing I’ll predict -- will be great.

Of possible future Tea Cup Classic participants, Cierra Gaytan of

Harbor View Elementary School in Corona del Mar is only 8, but she won

her first junior girls golf tournament July 27 in a division for

11-year-olds at Iron-Wood Nine Golf Course in Cerritos (par 29).

Gaytan shot 34 and was tied with Christine Shin, then won a nine-hole

putting playoff.

Richard Dunn’s golf column appears every Thursday.