Now, for the real Top 10

Richard Dunn

* Editor’s note: Every year the Daily Pilot celebrates the top

stories of the year. This time around, Richard Dunn’s viewpoints get

first billing.

Every year it’s different, and, in keeping with tradition, we

bring you the Top 10 Golf Stories for 2002, according to yours truly.

Hale Irwin

1 Hale Irwin, who said earlier in Toshiba week that he hopes to

remain “interested” in competing for another money title on the

Senior PGA Tour (now the Champions Tour), shot a tournament scoring

record 17-under 196 to dominate the field and win his 34th career

senior event.

The tour’s all-time leading money winner not only shattered

tournament scoring records at Newport Beach Country Club, but blitzed

the course after changing clubs in the same week.

Just before teeing off in the first round, Irwin switched to

forged blade irons, changed from graphite to steel shafts, added a

couple of new fairway woods and a new sand wedge in his bag, then

went out and shot 67-64-65 for the finest round of 54 in Toshiba

history.

Irwin, who won the 1998 Toshiba Classic after firing a

course-record 62 on Sunday, won the tournament in March -- three

months before his 57th birthday.

“When someone tells me I can’t, it tends to motivate me,” Irwin

said. “I’m not one that looks back but looks forward, try to create

opportunities for success.”

Irwin’s victory in Newport Beach catapulted him to the top of the

2002 money list and he never looked back, winning the Senior Tour

money title and becoming the first senior to eclipse the $3-million

mark in single-season earnings ($3,028,304). It was his third money

title.

Tea Cup

2 In the most compelling finish in Tea Cup Classic history,

Marianne Towersey of Santa Ana Country Club saved her best putt for

the end as she captured the Newport-Mesa community’s unofficial

women’s golf championship on her home course in early September in

Tea Cup Classic VI.

Towersey wasn’t interested in a playoff, like in Tea Cup Classic

IV in 2000 at Big Canyon Country Club, when she beat Debbie Albright

of Newport Beach Country Club in one extra hole.

This time, three players in the foursome headed to the 18th green

within one shot of the lead and a chance to win the venerable

18-hole, stroke-play event for the four women’s club champions in the

Daily Pilot circulation.

But Towersey, whose once-comfortable four-shot lead had dwindled

to one after a string of three bogeys and a late surge by Olivia

Slutzky (Big Canyon) and Akemi Khaiat (Mesa Verde Country Club), sank

a dramatic 11-foot birdie putt at the par-5 18, an uphill,

right-to-left breaker with Slutzky breathing down her neck while

staring at a 4-foot birdie attempt to force a possible playoff.

“I can’t believe I had that (putt) in me. I’m so tired,” Towersey

said. “I couldn’t have done a playoff.”

For Towersey, it was her fourth Tea Cup title in five years,

winning in 1998 and ’99 by seven strokes, in addition to the 2000

championship in a playoff over Albright.

Jones Cup

3 As if Big Canyon Country Club didn’t have enough pressure with

the largest of the two galleries and playing on its home course, the

pro-am team of Director of Golf Bob Lovejoy and men’s club champion

Danny Lane captured Jones Cup III in thrilling fashion in late July.

Lovejoy and Lane recovered from a disastrous start, carding a

triple-bogey 8 on the second hole to fall three strokes off the pace.

But they rallied and finished at 2-under 70, winning by two shots

over runner-up Santa Ana and 2000 Jones Cup champion Mesa Verde.

Lane thrived in the spotlight and birdied two of the last three

holes, including the dogleg-right 518-yard par-5 No. 18 in front of

his home fans with a 20-foot putt.

Santa Ana amateur Gregg Hemphill, who was sizzling on the front

nine with three birdies to give his team the lead at the turn,

reached the edge of the 18th green in two and attempted a 30-foot

eagle putt to tie Big Canyon and force a playoff for the second

straight year.

But Hemphill’s putt didn’t fall and Big Canyon celebrated with its

second straight Jones Cup title.

Honor system

4 Murrieta’s Ed Cuff, the last amateur to defeat Tiger Woods in

match play, was leading the Southern California Mid-Amateur in the

final round through 15 holes, but then after preparing to hit a

20-foot birdie attempt on the par-3 No. 16, Cuff backed away and

called a one-shot penalty on himself after the ball moved. He

two-putted for what became a bogey.

Former UC Irvine golfer and SCGA amateur champion Scott McGihon of

Bermuda Dunes rallied from 10 shots off the pace to capture the 19th

SCGA Mid-Am title by one shot, firing a 2-under 70 in the final round

in late August to finish the 54-hole championship at 3-over 219, a

testament to how tough Big Canyon played in the two days of

competition.

Cuff, the leader after two rounds by six shots, concluded his

nightmarish final round of 80 with three bogeys to finish in a tie

for second with Huntington Beach’s Bill Coleman, whose 1-under 71 was

the only other subpar score in the final round.

McGihon joined Craig Steinberg, John Pate and Mark Johnson as the

only players to win both the SCGA Amateur and SCGA Mid-Amateur.

Big Canyon’s Dennis Harwood, a longtime SCGA board member, said

Cuff’s ball at 16 moved “perhaps 1/8 of an inch on the putting

green, which only he saw. That honorable action, which cost him a

stroke, may have cost him the win since he eventually lost by one.”

Towersey

5 Towersey, who joined the 50-and-over senior amateur circuit last

year, enjoyed a sensational year in 2002, winning three major

tournaments and competing well again on the national level.

This year, Towersey captured her 18th women’s club championship at

Santa Ana (in 21 years) to become the Newport-Mesa community’s

all-time leader in club titles -- men or women. She passed Newport

Beach Country Club’s Dee Dee White, who won 17 titles.

In addition to winning her fourth career Tea Cup Classic in 2002,

Towersey won the California Senior Women’s Amateur Championship at

Bayonet in Monterey and the Women’s Golf Association of Southern

California title at the PGA of Southern California course in

Calimesa.

Further, Towersey shot a women’s course-record 68 at Newport Beach

Country Club in early August and carded her first sub-70 round at

Santa Ana later that month. Towersey’s 69 on her home course was the

lowest by a female amateur.

USC’s Wood

6 In name alone, Taylor Wood sounds like someone who belongs in

the golf business, and, sure enough, the 18-year-old USC freshman

captured the 30th annual Costa Mesa City Championship by two shots at

Costa Mesa Country Club.

In an exciting, well-played round for all three players in the

final group, Wood drained most of the birdie putts and fired a

6-under 66 to tie a tournament scoring record at 64-66--130.

UC Irvine standout Mike Lavery finished second at 64-68--132,

while Estancia High product Ken Calvert was third at 64-69--133.

“That last group, that’s as good as I’ve seen the place play,”

said noted Costa Mesa superintendent Jim Fetterly, referring to the

combined 13-under the last trio posted.

Wood, 10 shots lower than the champion two years ago, tied the

tournament scoring record at 130, Costa Mesa head pro Brad Booth

said, believed to be held by John Wardrup, who shot a 60-70--130 in

the early 1990s.

Webster tribute

7 In a memorial tournament tribute to Steve Webster last month at

Costa Mesa Country Club, about $11,000 was raised for his family.

Webster was killed in the terrorist bombing at a nightclub in Bali.

Webster, who was in Bali on a surfing trip to celebrate his 41st

birthday in October, played golf regularly at Costa Mesa, where his

friends organized the tournament in his honor.

Lucky is better

8 It isn’t always what you see, but how you see the end result on

a golf course. Just like 68-year-old Neil Barton, who sank a

memorable hole-in-one on the 134-yard par-3 No. 12 at Mesa Verde Country Club in a charity golf tournament.

“It was over water, over a bunker and straight into the sun. I

didn’t see a thing,” Barton said. “I’d rather be lucky than good.”

Firemen

9 The Costa Mesa Firefighters Association, which sponsors and

supports numerous charities in the city, including awarding two $500

scholarships each year to both Estancia and Costa Mesa high schools,

as well as donating to the athletic programs at both schools, hosted

its third annual Costa Mesa Firefighters Association Charity Golf

Tournament at Costa Mesa Country Club.

The CMFA Charity Fund, the beneficiary of the tournament, also

supports local Little League teams and the Costa Mesa Senior Center.

Last year, the association contributed to the New York Fire

Department Sept. 11 campaign relief effort. Local firemen flew to New

York to donate the check.

While playing golf with a fireman these days is like playing with

a celebrity, many Costa Mesa firefighters enjoyed playing the Mesa

Linda golf course Monday in the third annual

R. W. Eaks

10 On a personal note, it was great to see former back-to-back

Newport Classic Pro-Am winner R.W. Eaks (1995-96) shatter the driving

distance record on the Senior PGA Tour when he averaged 295.1 yards

per drive this year. John Jacobs, the all-time leader in Newport

Classic Pro-Am played by a professional (13), held the previous

record at 290.7 yards in 1997.