Bringing the credentials

Bryce Alderton

The foursome from Santa Ana Country Club carries a lot of weight into

this year’s retooled Jones Cup.

But this has nothing to do with expanded waistlines, or even human

biology. Instead, the weight comes from titles Santa Ana Country Club

golfers have accumulated in various club championships through the

years.

The foursome of Marianne Towersey (women’s club champion), Boyd

Martin (senior club champion), Bill Welch (men’s club champion) and

Geoff Cochrane (head professional) have combined for nearly 30 Santa

Ana Country Club titles and will try to claim this year’s

ground-breaking Jones Cup at 1 p.m. Wednesday at Newport Beach

Country Club.

Towersey has won 20 women’s titles at Santa Ana Country Club, a

record for women’s championships among the four private clubs in

Newport-Mesa (Newport Beach Country Club, Santa Ana Country Club,

Mesa Verde Country Club, Big Canyon Country Club), while Martin has

six men’s crowns to go with the senior championship he won this year.

Welch won his first men’s championship this year after reaching

the 36-hole match-play final in 2003.

Towersey also won five of the seven Tea Cup Classic titles,

including last year’s finale at Mesa Verde Country Club.

This year’s Jones Cup combines the best of both the Tea Cup

Classic, an 18-hole stroke-play event that featured the four women’s

club champions against one another, with the former Jones Cup, a

better ball of partners format that began in 2000.

Each of the four foursomes will count two best balls per hole in

this year’s event.

Towersey, a Newport Beach resident who regularly competes in

tournaments on a national scale, welcomed the change and even hinted

at choosing a team color with her teammates’ approval.

“We want to get people out from the club, cheering us on,” she

said.

Cochrane said Sunday that he and his teammates would dawn navy

shirts for Wednesday’s extravaganza.

Welch is no stranger to galleries. He played three years of golf

for Adrian College, a Division III school in Adrian, Mich.

“It’s kind of exciting because we don’t get to [golf when people

are watching] too often,” Welch said. “We are all golf nuts. We watch

T.V. and see galleries of 20,000 people and wonder what that feeling

would be like. But they are pros and aren’t supposed to feel those

tense moments on the first tee.”

Welch said he hasn’t played with Towersey before, but has played

with Martin several times, including the 2003 men’s club

championship.

Cochrane made his Jones Cup debut last year, when he teamed with

Martin.

“We’ve got complimentary games,” Welch said of all four players.

“Boyd can putt lights out. Marianne, from what I’ve heard, can do

just about everything. I’m just going to be along for the ride and do

what those guys tell me to do.”

Cochrane, in his second year as the Southern California PGA’s

tournament chairman for the Metro chapter, and Welch played a

practice round at Newport Beach Country Club Wednesday.

“You never get tired of playing it,” Welch said. “It is always in

good shape and the greens can speed up.”