No tee times for toddlers

Richard Dunn

COSTA MESA -- While Mesa Verde Country Club’s Akemi Khaiat might

be new to the Tea Cup Classic, she’s certainly no stranger to

competitive women’s golf.

Khaiat, however, the medalist at the 1996 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur

Championship at San Diego Country Club, is finding tee times and

practice swings harder to come by as a first-time mother to her

19-month-old son, Anthony.

But Khaiat, who qualified for this year’s U.S. Women’s Mid-Am

Sept. 21-26 at Eugene Country Club in Eugene, Ore., has so far been

able to juggle golf while raising her toddler, after taking last year

off.

“I used to practice all the time. But now I’m just trying to find

a way to be a good mother and also be a competitive golfer,” said

Khaiat, a highly regarded amateur in Japan, as well as the U.S.

“That’s what I’m trying to find out -- if I can do that. It’s tough.

You can’t practice all the time ... life used to be golf only, and

business, but now I have a son (with her husband, Laurent) and he’s

my priority.”

Khaiat, who captured her first Mesa Verde club championship in

2002 in her first year of eligibility, winning by 23 strokes, ended

Denise Woodard’s unprecedented Mesa Verde streak of six consecutive

titles. Khaiat will become the first Mesa Verde player besides

Woodard to compete in the Tea Cup Classic when the sixth annual event

takes place Wednesday at Santa Ana Country Club at 1 p.m..

“I’ve never played this type of format (with one foursome in

stroke play). It’s kind of like the Skins game,” said Khaiat, who

will face Olivia Slutzky of Big Canyon Country Club, defending Tea

Cup champion Debbie Albright of Newport Beach Country Club and

three-time Tea Cup winner Marianne Towersey of host Santa Ana Country

Club in Tea Cup Classic VI.

“Marianne has been playing very well (winning the California

Senior Women’s Amateur Championship and Women’s Golf Association of

Southern California titles). I’m just hoping I can be second.”

Khaiat, who has played in several U.S. Amateur, U.S. Mid-Amateur

and Japan Open championships, has only played the Santa Ana Country

Club layout twice and said “it’s very tricky if you don’t know the

golf course ... the Mesa Verde Country Club people are really praying

for me. I’d like to do my best for them. I’m looking forward to

playing in this tournament.”

Khaiat, who has been a member of the Japan National Team numerous

times and was elected co-captain of the 1998 squad at the World

Amateur in Santiago, Chile, is a former member at Riviera Country

Club and Newport Beach Country Club. She won women’s club

championships all five years she was at Riviera and produced similar

results at Newport Beach, where Khaiat claimed three club titles from

1992 through ’94.

“At that time, they didn’t have the Tea Cup Classic,” said Khaiat,

who ended Sandi Coffer’s streak of five straight Newport Beach club

championships in ’92.

Khaiat, whose husband will caddie for her in Tea Cup Classic VI,

will try to become the second from Mesa Verde to procure perpetual

hardware in the Fletcher Jones Motorcars/Daily Pilot Club

Championship Series, following the men’s pro-am team of Tom Sargent

and Pete Daley, who won the inaugural Jones Cup in 2000.

The Tea Cup Classic was launched by this sports section in 1997 to

determine an overall women’s champion in the Daily Pilot circulation,

following a slew of large margins of victory, while promoting women’s

golf, bringing the golf community closer together and celebrating the

area’s four women’s club champions in a special one-day format. The

four private country clubs rotate as host site each year.