Bryce AldertonSo how does a four-time champion...

Bryce Alderton

So how does a four-time champion of a tournament that will be played

for the seventh time Friday explain her success?

Simple. It’s the people.

“The great thing about the Tea Cup is that it is fun to have

friends following you,” Marianne Towersey said about the annual event

that pits the four women’s club champions of Newport-Mesa’s four

private golf courses against one another for a one-day, 18-hole

stroke play event. “It kind of spruces me up in support unlike any

tournament I play in.

“I generally don’t have a lot of friends watching and rooting for

me, so that is a fun aspect to it. I think that has helped me

succeed. The mental edge has been the difference.”

Towersey, who won her unprecedented 19th Santa Ana Country Club

championship in May, has claimed Tea Cup titles in 1998, ‘99, 2000

and again last year, when she needed to sink an 11-foot birdie putt

on the par-five 18th hole to erase Olivia Slutzky’s (Big Canyon)

chances of winning. Towersey fired a two-over-par 74 that September

day on her home course to beat Slutzky by one stroke and Mesa Verde’s

Akemi Khaiat by two shots.

Heading into the 1 p.m. start Friday at Mesa Verde in Tea Cup VII,

Towersey said Khaiat has the home course advantage.

“Mesa Verde is a great venue and Akemi is the one to beat,”

Towersey sad. “She is a great golfer. [Akemi] definitely has the

competitive edge with the national tournaments she has played in.”

Towersey is getting her share of national-tournament experience

this year. She recently competed in the 103rd Women’s Western Amateur

Golf Championship in Urbana, Ill., June 16-20 followed by the North

and South Amateur at Pinehurst.

“I didn’t do well,” Towersey said of her performance in the two

events. “I shot 154 [over two days] in each tournament during

qualifying. I lost in the first round in the Western and didn’t make

the cut [31 players advanced out of 119] at Pinehurst. But I did beat

a third to half of the field of college kids.

“It is remarkable how strong these girls are and how dedicated

they are to the game. I outhit some of them, but a few knock it 30 to

40 yards past me.”

Towersey, 52, won the Women’s Golf Association of California

championship in May at Coto de Caza Golf & Racquet Club, defeating

Corey Weworski, 2 up. The five-day tournament pitted women’s club

champions from the Northern and Southern California Golf Associations

against one another in match play.

Towersey also won the event in 1981 and again four years ago.

“It was a great win with the competition from the North and the

South,” she said. “We beat the North as a team, so that was a feather

in our cap.”

In September Towersey will play in the U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur

at Barton Creek Resort and Club in Austin, Texas, and in October will

tee it up in the Women’s Mid-Amateur at Long Cove Golf Club in Hilton

Head, S.C. She got to the round of 16 in each event last year.

She is considering adding another wedge and is experimenting with

a 7-wood for added distance.

Accuracy is where Towersey, who began playing golf at age 4, said

she puts a premium when it comes to golf.

“It is the same old swing, and usually works well, ‘usually’ being

the operative term,” she said.

As far as the Tea Cup goes, it has gotten the job done.