SANTA ANA HEIGHTS -- The pride...

SANTA ANA HEIGHTS -- The pride of Newport-Mesa women’s golf will

be on display today in Tea Cup Classic VI with a 1 p.m. tee time at

Santa Ana Country Club, and defending champion Debbie Albright of

Newport Beach Country Club summed it up best for the golfers

competing in the 18-hole event that celebrates the four club

champions in the Daily Pilot circulation.

“We have all paid our dues to get out there and play together,”

Albright said of the featured foursome in Tea Cup Classic VI at Santa

Ana, where the public is invited to gallery at the oldest golf club

in Orange County (101 years old) as long as individuals meet the

required dress code.

Albright, a seven-time Newport Beach champion, will face a

competitive Tea Cup field in Akemi Khaiat of Mesa Verde Country Club,

Olivia Slutzky of Big Canyon Country Club and three-time Tea Cup

winner Marianne Towersey of the host club, which also hosted Tea Cup

Classic II in 1998. The four clubs in this newspaper’s circulation

rotate as host site.

“It’s always a little more difficult playing in the Tea Cup

Classic, because we’re not used to playing with a crowd around us.

That brings added tension to the game,” Albright said, referring to

past Tea Cup galleries, in which rolling crowds reach about 200.

The winner of Tea Cup Classic VI, part of the Fletcher Jones

Motorcars/Daily Pilot Club Championship Series that was launched in

1997, will receive a perpetual trophy to be displayed at their home

club, as well as a championship glass vase. And, of course, the

chance to be crowned the Pilot’s local golf queen for 2002.

“It’s going to be great,” said Towersey, who won Tea Cup titles in

1998, ’99 and 2000, and is the Newport-Mesa community’s all-time

leader in club championships with 18.

In addition to playing on her home course, Towersey enters Tea Cup

Classic VI as perhaps the hottest golfer, having shot a career-low 69

last month at Santa Ana Country Club -- one of the few golf-only

clubs in the state -- and a women’s amateur course-record 68 at

Newport Beach.

“Marianne has been playing very well. I’m just hoping I can be

second,” said Khaiat, who will play in her first Tea Cup Classic,

after Denise Woodard won six straight Mesa Verde women’s club titles

and played in the first five Tea Cup events.

In May, Towersey won the California Senior Women’s Amateur

Championship at Bayonet Golf Course in Monterey and, in August,

captured the Southern Championship at the PGA of Southern California

Golf Club in Calimesa, the prestigious private-club tournament in the

Women’s Golf Association of Southern California.

In 1999, Towersey played in the Southern Championship finals and

lost on the 35th hole of match play at Mission Viejo Country Club,

then hustled to Mesa Verde Country Club to play in Tea Cup Classic

III, which didn’t start until about 3 p.m. Towersey lost her favorite

long putter somewhere in transition that day, before borrowing a

putter from the Mesa Verde pro shop and going on to win her second

straight Tea Cup Classic title, capping a remarkable 53-hole day of

competitive golf that will always be remembered in Tea Cup lore.

Towersey, who won a playoff over Albright to win Tea Cup Classic

IV at Big Canyon Country Club in 2000, will compete in the U.S.

Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship later this month at Eugene Country

Club in Eugene, Ore.

Khaiat, who will also play in the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur

Championship, is the only newcomer to the Tea Cup Classic this year.

A longtime member of the Japan National Team, Khaiat won the Mesa

Verde women’s club championship this year in her first year of

eligibility, claiming the crown by 23 strokes.

The medalist at the 1996 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship at

San Diego Country Club, Khaiat won club crowns at Riviera Country

Club all five years she was a member and captured clubs titles at

Newport Beach Country Club in 1992, ’93 and ’94.

Albright, who enjoyed a solid round last year (78) on her home

course at Newport Beach to win Tea Cup Classic V by two shots over

Towersey, said she feels “honored to be playing in a foursome with

Marianne Towersey and Akemi Khaiat, because both have had great

golfing careers.”

Slutzky, 34, will be the first pregnant player ever to compete in

the Tea Cup Classic. Her competitors in Tea Cup Classic VI all said

they were thrilled for her, but probably do not envy the morning

nauseousness that goes along with it.

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

Cup Classic, after winning her first Big Canyon club championship by

26 shots. She carded an 81 and finished third in Tea Cup Classic V at

Newport Beach.

Selby Schriber of Big Canyon Country Club won the inaugural Tea

Cup Classic in 1997 at Newport Beach.

The Tea Cup Classic was launched by this sports section to

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

following a slew of large margins of victory. It was also set up to

promote women’s golf, bring the golf community closer together and

celebrate the area’s four women’s club champions in a special one-day

format.

The first five years of the event have proved to be a huge success

with the Tea Cup Classic growing in popularity, drawing members in

the gallery from each of the four private country clubs in the area.

When Schriber won the first Tea Cup Classic, she carded a

38-36--74 at Newport Beach to win by five strokes. She led after the

second hole and never trailed.

Towersey captured Tea Cup Classic II on her home course with a

seven-shot victory, then repeated a seven-stroke win in Tea Cup

Classic III, on the heels of match-play competition earlier in the

day in the Southern Championship.

Towersey won the event’s only playoff in 2000, after she and

Albright tied at 4-over 76 through 18 holes at Big Canyon. Towersey

won on the first extra hole.

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

four holes with a comfortable four-shot lead. Her most difficult

moment came after his tee shot at 18 landed in a bunker on the left

and she failed to get out with a 9-wood. But Albright didn’t unravel.

She stayed focused on a good tempo and got out of trouble with a

6-iron. She went on to save bogey and win by two strokes, becoming

only the second Tea Cup player to win on their home course.