Golf: Towersey three-peats at Tea Cup Classic IV!

Richard Dunn

NEWPORT BEACH - As if Marianne Towersey needed another golf quest,

she couldn’t help but think about what’s next for her in the Tea Cup

Classic.

After all, following Friday’s must-see playoff victory over Debbie

Albright at Big Canyon Country Club to capture her third consecutive Tea

Cup title, Towersey had thoughts of a possible four-peat.

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

(where Tea Cup Classic V is scheduled for 2001), and I love that golf

course,” said Towersey, the long-reigning champion at Santa Ana Country

Club who was pushed like never before in the popular community golf

tournament for the four women’s club champions in the Daily Pilot

circulation.

Before a rolling crowd of 200 at Big Canyon, Towersey and Albright,

the five-time Newport Beach Country Club champion, finished tied at

4-over-par 76 in the 18-hole, stroke-play shootout.

Towersey bogeyed 13 and Albright sank a seven-foot putt for par and

the two were tied, which is the way it remained for the next five holes

with Mesa Verde Country Club’s Denise Woodard and Big Canyon Country

Club’s Colette Taormina, a Tea Cup newcomer, battling for third place.

Towersey and Albright both came close to going one stroke ahead in the

field with long birdie-putt attempts.

At 18, after a nice ovation from a supportive gallery, Albright

drained a five-foot par putt to keep matters tied as Towersey was

preparing for a tap-in par.

It forced the first playoff in Tea Cup Classic history, with Towersey

and Albright going back to the 18th tee.

Albright, who birdied hole No. 1 with a 30-foot putt to ignite the

crowd, went into the right rough and hit a tree off the tee in the

playoff hole. But, staring at a long third shot to the green, Albright

made a terrific recovery, hitting onto the fringe with the pin in the

middle.

Albright three-putted for bogey on the par-5 No. 18, while Towersey

made par for the 15th time in her round, after a 45-foot birdie attempt

almost landed in the jar.

Towersey and Albright embraced on the 18th green in a memorable pose,

climaxing Tea Cup Classic IV and providing the Fletcher Jones

Motorcars/Daily Pilot Club Championship Series with its first playoff.

“She’s getting gooder and gooder,” Towersey’s mother, Pat Cox, said to

her after the edge-of-your-seat victory, referring to Albright.

“At least I made it exciting this year,” said Albright, who managed

the hilly Big Canyon layout (par-72, 5,605 yards), which has severe

greens, with 12 pars on her scorecard.

The locally famous Towersey secured Tea Cup Classic titles in 1998 at

Santa Ana Country Club and ’99 at Mesa Verde Country Club by seven

strokes each. But, on Friday, it was no cup of tea.

“It’s always fun to win, but it was nerve-racking,” said the locally

famous Towersey, who has won 15 of the last 18 Santa Ana Country Club

titles and will try for her 16th later this month.

Towersey, who received the first perpetual trophy from the Daily Pilot

for winning the Tea Cup Classic and a bouquet of roses from Big Canyon,

missed several long birdie-putt efforts. But she sank a clutch

five-footer at 17 after she “chunked a wedge shot.”

Towersey, the course record-holder at 69, was above the hole, where

it’s dangerous at Big Canyon, but made the putt to stay even with

Albright.

“After I made that, I still felt like I had a chance to win (in

regulation),” Towersey said. “That putt gave me confidence. I’d rather go

into 18 tied then one (shot) down.”

Also on the par-4 No. 17, Taormina drained a sweet 10-foot putt for par to move into third place, while Albright missed a birdie putt from

the throat of the fairway to within two inches for a tap-in par.

“I was absolutely thrilled with the way I played. I don’t feel bad at

all for finishing second,” Albright said. “I had a bad tee shot in the

playoff hole, but made a good recovery shot. I really had a fun day and

the golf course was in great shape. The greens were beautiful. Like I

said two months ago, it came down to putting.”

For Towersey, it was her second straight day in a playoff, following

Thursday’s semifinal action in the Women’s Southern California Golf

Association Championships at Oakmont Country Club in Glendale, where she

lost in match play to Karen Mabli of Palos Verdes, 1 up in 19 holes.

“So I’m 1 and 1 in playoffs this week,” said Towersey, who was ready

to celebrate Friday evening as the sun began to set at Big Canyon and the

players were planning an impromptu post-tournament party at the Taormina

house.

Last year, Towersey advanced to the Southern match-play finals of 36

holes at Mission Viejo Country Club and lost to Candy Meyers of Glendora

on the 35th hole. Then, she drove to Mesa Verde for Tea Cup Classic III

and played 18 more holes, before capturing her second straight

Newport-Mesa community title.

In Tea Cup Classic IV, which beamed with gorgeous sunny weather and a

well-mannered gallery that Towersey thanked afterward, the suspense

wasn’t about making tee times. But whether Towersey could be challenged.

Albright, who showed consistent length and accuracy off the tee and in

the fairway, 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 five-time Mesa Verde champion who finished second in last

year’s Tea Cup on her home course, shot 91 and captured third place,

thanks to pars at 15 and 18.

Taormina, who shot 92 and finished fourth, received a warm ovation

from the home gallery at 18 as she walked up the green.

“You’re probably over your nerves by now, aren’t you?” Taormina’s

husband and caddie, Vince, said to her on the 17th hole.

Towersey’s caddie, Alan Burch of Santa Ana Country Club, said the

greens at Big Canyon were “very difficult” with “a lot of undulation. But

a lot of the putts we missed were just because of missed reads.”

Big Canyon will host the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship (25 and

over) Oct. 3-8, but the course will play about 300 yards longer than it

did Friday for Tea Cup Classic IV, USGA rules official and Big Canyon

member Dennis Harwood said.

The Tea Cup Classic, which completed the first four-club rotation of

host sites this year, was designed for the four ladies club champions in

a one-day shootout, which seemed like the OK Corral at times Friday.

It was also created to promote a day for women’s golf and bring the

golf community closer together.