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.
All the latest on Orange County from Orange County.
Get our free TimesOC newsletter.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Daily Pilot.