Golf: Santa Ana CC matriarch recovering

Richard Dunn

Missing from the Tea Cup Classic gallery this afternoon will be Pat

Cox of Santa Ana Heights, the four-time women’s club champion at Santa

Ana Country Club and mother of perhaps the best female golfer in

Newport-Mesa history.

Marianne Towersey will play in Tea Cup Classic V at Newport Beach

Country Club (1 p.m.) and try to win an unprecedented fourth straight Tea

Cup title against a solid field.

Cox, who loves watching her daughter compete in the locally famous Tea

Cup, underwent major surgery at Hoag Hospital recently, and, after nine

days in the hospital, returned home Tuesday.

She is expected to remain stable at home, according to her daughter.

“Hopefully,” Towersey quipped, “she won’t show up.”

Cox, who won Santa Ana women’s club championships in 1947, ‘52, ’61

and ‘62, has been “totally encouraging” her daughter to play in Tea Cup

Classic V.

“Maybe having lower expectations will make me play better,” said

Towersey, who hasn’t played much golf lately, but doesn’t expect to be

rusty today.

“I certainly won’t be stressed over (playing in Tea Cup Classic V).

I’ve had so much stress from the other front. It will be nice to take a

day off from my hospital duties, my nursing duties.”

Towersey and her brother have been taking care of their mother.

Volunteering as the official scorekeeper again this year in the Tea

Cup Classic is Newport Beach Country Club member Bob Price, a longtime

Toshiba Senior Classic volunteer.

Serving as Tea Cup Classic V rules official will be Newport Beach head

professional Paul Hahn, club president Jerry Anderson said Tuesday. Hahn

will also announce the four players at the first tee.

As customary in the Tea Cup Classic, hole-in-one prizes are available

on the par-3s. At Newport Beach’s signature hole No. 17, any hole-in-one

by our ladies will win a 2001 Mercedes-Benz ML320, courtesy of Fletcher

Jones Motorcars.

Other prizes for an ace include a set of Ping irons, a titanium driver

and a $250 pro shop gift certificate.

The perpetual trophy for winning the Tea Cup Classic has been at Santa

Ana Country Club for a year, marking the toast of the coast in

celebrating women’s golf.

Each participant this year will also receive a beautiful crystal with

golf images inside. And, in keeping with Tea Cup folklore, players will

be given special treatment with personalized signs on the practice range

-- just like the pros.

A bouquet of roses will also be awarded to the winner, started last

year by Big Canyon Country Club, which hosted Tea Cup Classic IV.

That’s what it’s all about when it comes to a small community golf

event like the Tea Cup Classic or Jones Cup for men. Each of the four

country clubs -- Big Canyon, Mesa Verde, Newport Beach and Santa Ana --

enjoy ownership in the tournament, and, when it comes time to host, each

has the ability to add a few details or leave a lasting trademark.

No matter who wins or how anybody shoots, there will be plenty of

“bubbly” after Tea Cup Classic V in the patio area at Newport Beach.

The intent of the Tea Cup Classic, after all, is to celebrate all four

women’s club champions. That’s what got us here in the first place.

The four players in Tea Cup Classic V enjoyed an average margin of

victory this year of 24.25 strokes over their nearest competitors at

their respective club championships.

And you want to know why we started the Tea Cup Classic?

Of the four, Denise Woodard of Mesa Verde had the largest margin of

victory, winning her sixth straight Mesa Verde title by 27 shots. Woodard

improved her four-round total of 315 by 20 strokes from last year (335)

to this year.

Admission to Tea Cup Classic V is free.

Why do we use Roman numerals in referring to our Tea Cup Classics?

Because 1) that’s what the Super Bowl does, 2) because it’s easier to

keep track of, and 3) because we can.

Newport Beach’s Debbie Albright shot 79 on her home course in Tea Cup

Classic I in 1997 and finished second to Big Canyon’s Selby Schriber

(74).

Albright was also second in Tea Cup Classic II and lost in a playoff

last year.

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 year.

The event draws members from all four private clubs and has

occasionally enticed the interest of the non-golfing crowd. In 1998 and

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

1890s costumes, complete with parasols.

There are others simply fascinated with the idea and love watching the

ladies play in the easygoing environment.

It also creates quite a rooting section in the gallery from each club.

Tea Cup newcomer Olivia Slutzky will try to get Big Canyon back in the

winner’s circle.

Richard Dunn’s golf column usually appears every Thursday.