Defending Tea Cup Classic champion hoping to repeat

Richard Dunn

If ever a women’s club champion stood tall on her home golf

course, it was last year for Debbie Albright of Newport Beach Country

Club in the Tea Cup Classic.

Albright, after finishing second three times, captured the

perpetual Tea Cup Classic trophy last year and celebrated on the 18th

green with friends and family members, who swarmed to congratulate

her in a memorable moment.

Now, as she prepares for Tea Cup Classic VI on Wednesday at Santa

Ana Country Club, Albright will be a first-time defending champion as

she squares off against Olivia Slutzky of Big Canyon Country Club,

Tea Cup newcomer Akemi Khaiat of Mesa Verde Country Club and

three-time Tea Cup champion Marianne Towersey of host Santa Ana.

Albright, who didn’t return from vacation until a few days ago,

has become a star at Newport Beach with her seven consecutive club

titles. The vivacious blond, a hard-working, dedicated player

according to Newport Beach head professional Paul Hahn, broke club

championship records at Newport Beach in May for margin of victory

(36 strokes) and scoring (72-75-74-76--297). Albright was the first

to break 300 in a four-round women’s championship at the club, while

posting four rounds in the 70s for the third consecutive year.

“I felt like I really played consistent this year (in the club

championship), and with an opening-round 72, that was an added

bonus,” Albright said. “We have some great players at Newport Beach,

so I always feel l have to go out and give it my best ... it’s not

like it’s just given to you. You have to work at it.”

While Albright is a strong believer in the mental and

psychological aspects of the game, she said “it still comes down to

experience” in a competitive situation.

In last year’s Tea Cup Classic, Albright played each of the last

four holes with a four-shot lead. She bogeyed the 18th hole and

concluded the round at 6-over-par 78, while runner-up Towersey

birdied the last hole to finish two shots off the pace.

Albright’s tee shot at 18 found a bunker on the left side of the

fairway, but she couldn’t get out with her 9-wood. Instead of

unraveling, she “just focused on a good tempo to get out (with a

6-iron)” and survived her most difficult moment of the afternoon.

On the front nine last year, Albright made three pars in a row on

holes 3 through 5 to take a one-shot lead in Tea Cup Classic V. She

never lost the advantage.

Albright increased her lead to two strokes after making par on the

par-3 hole No. 8, while the Tea Cup field’s nearest competitor at the

time made bogey.

Albright, a mother of two young teenagers, still believes her golf

game is improving each year.

“I didn’t start playing until I was 24 or 25, and golf’s a game in

which you keep on learning,” said Albright, 44. “(Improvement) is not

something that happens overnight. You have to work at it and play a

lot of competitions to get comfortable out there on the golf course.”

Although Albright is taking it one year at a time, she’s now two

away from tying Dee Dee White’s club record of nine consecutive

titles. White, the club’s all-time leader with 17 club championships,

won nine straight from 1967 through ’75.

Albright, whose title streak began in 1996, is originally from New

Zealand. Her husband, Jock, introduced her to golf.

Janice Sauter, who finished second in this year’s women’s club

championship at Newport Beach, will caddie for Albright in Tea Cup

Classic VI.

The event, which was started by this sports section in 1997, is

part of the Fletcher Jones Motorcars/Daily Pilot Club Championship

Series. The four women’s club champions in the Daily Pilot

circulation are invited each summer to participate in the Tea Cup

Classic. The four private country clubs rotate as host site. The

public is invited to gallery, as long as dress-code requirements are

satisfied.