Slutzky set for different course

Richard Dunn

Feeling nauseous in the morning these days comes with the

territory for Big Canyon Country Club’s Olivia Slutzky, who will

become the first pregnant player in Tea Cup Classic history.

Slutzky, 34, and her husband, Alan, are expecting their first

child in early April, and, for the two-time defending Big Canyon

women’s club champion, Tea Cup Classic VI on Wednesday at Santa Ana

Country Club will be her final act for awhile on the golf course.

“I will be (able to compete) as long as I don’t have to carry my

bag,” Slutzky said. “I feel nauseous 24 hours a day. I always feel

like I’m ready to throw up. But they say by three or four months that

(morning sickness) will go away. I can either use that as an excuse

or (Tea Cup Classic VI) will be my last big hurrah.”

In April 2003, Big Canyon will host its women’s club championship,

so Slutzky will not be around to defend her title. This year, she

captured her second straight championship with a 79-76-76-83--313,

winning by 10 strokes. But she hasn’t played much this summer, after

competing on the Big Canyon women’s team.

The Tea Cup Classic has featured plenty of mothers in the 18-hole,

stroke-play event designed for the four club champions in the Daily

Pilot circulation, as well as a grandmother (Mesa Verde Country

Club’s Denise Woodard). But no one has ever played while pregnant.

Newport Beach Country Club’s Debbie Albright is the Tea Cup

Classic’s defending champion, winning last year on her home course,

but Santa Ana Country Club’s Marianne Towersey, the Newport-Mesa

community’s all-time leader with 18 club titles, has been on fire

this summer and is playing on her home course in this year’s Tea Cup

Classic.

“I definitely know Marianne will be tough to beat,” Slutzky said.

“She’s won her last two tournaments (including the California Senior

Women’s Amateur Championship). She’s a great competitor, a great

golfer and it’s on her home course, so it will be a tough challenge.

But if I can hold my own, on any given day, anything can happen. I’m

feeling excited about (the event). I loved it last year. It’s a great

format and there are great women. It will be fun to have (Tea Cup

newcomer) Akemi Khaiat (of Mesa Verde) in the field.”

Slutzky owns a 1.6 handicap index, but said “sometimes it feels

like it should be a 16-point something.” She will try to become Big

Canyon’s second Tea Cup Classic champion, following inaugural Tea Cup

winner Selby Schriber in 1997.

A former equestrian competitor who still loves to ride horses,

Slutzky didn’t start playing golf until seven years ago, when her

husband convinced her to try the game.

Last year, Slutzky was the youngest golfer ever to play in the Tea

Cup Classic at age 33, but also the most inexperienced. However, she

shot 81 and finished third in Tea Cup Classic V at Newport Beach,

three strokes off the winning pace.

“Because I came to golf late, I think I need to build more

confidence in my touch, or feel, around the greens and in my short

game,” said Slutzky, who displayed plenty of game last year and

intends to give Towersey, Albright and Khaiat all they can handle

Tuesday. “I really get such a thrill playing with Marianne. She has

that eye of the tiger.”

Last year, when Slutzky won her first Big Canyon women’s club

title, she shot 22 strokes higher (325) in the four rounds, but won

by 26 shots. She then became the fourth different Big Canyon

representative to play in the Tea Cup Classic in four years,

following Schriber, Sally Holstein and Colette Taormina.

The Tea Cup Classic, part of the Fletcher Jones Motorcars/Daily

Pilot Club Championship Series, was started by this sports section in

1997 to determine an overall women’s champion in the Daily Pilot

circulation, to bring the golf community closer together and to

celebrate the four women’s club champions in the area.