Golf: Tea Cup Classic participants reign supreme

Richard Dunn

With a full Tea Cup Classic flavor at the inaugural Grand Champion

of Champions, Debbie Albright of Newport Beach Country Club gave Orange

County a taste of women’s golf from the Newport-Mesa community.

Not to gloat or anything, but Albright showed Monday at Los Coyotes

Country Club in Buena Park what many of us have believed for years --

some of the best amateur golfers are right here in our backyard.

Albright, four-time defending Newport Beach club champion who has

played in all three Tea Cup Classics, won the showdown of the Orange

County women’s private club champions, an event co-sponsored by clubmaker

Grand Golf Design and Golf Media Group.

By winning the 18-hole, stroke-play invitational, Albright brought

home the perpetual trophy that is now proudly on display in the Newport

Beach clubhouse museum, along with an impressive array of golf artifacts

and Toshiba Senior Classic memorabilia.

Lending further credence to the area’s strength in women’s golf, Tea

Cup Classic heroine Marianne Towersey (Santa Ana Country Club) finished

second in Monday’s county championship, shooting six-over-par 78, one

stroke behind Albright.

“It was a really tough course, and I went out there, really, with no

expectations,” Albright said of the 6,090-yard Los Coyotes layout, which

plays about 300 yards longer than the women’s tees at Newport Beach.

From 1989 to 1992, the course played host to the Los Coyotes LPGA

Classic, but after four years the lady professionals had a tough time

making birdies and wanted another venue. Nancy Lopez won twice at Los

Coyotes, while Pat Bradley (1991) and Nancy Scranton (1992) also won

titles there.

“It was an extremely long golf course, about the same as the men’s

tees at Newport Beach, and we were using driver and wood into a lot of

greens. And (the turf) was wet, too, because it rained the night before

(and earlier in the morning),” said Albright, who managed two birdies on

par-three holes.

With 12 of the county’s 16 women’s private club champions

participating, Albright and Towersey shot six strokes better than the

nearest competitor (Alta Vista’s Lisa Sanders).

Sally Holstein (Big Canyon Country Club) and Denise Woodard (Mesa

Verde Country Club) also played in the Grand Champion of Champions at Los

Coyotes and shot 90.

On the men’s side, won by Alta Vista’s James Woolley (70), Big

Canyon’s Steve Collins and Santa Ana’s Chris Veitch shot 76, while Mesa

Verde’s Pete Daley shot 79. Newport Beach’s Joe Stafford did not play.

The Tea Cup Classic, which was launched out of this column on a whim

in 1997, has been sponsored each year by Fletcher Jones Motorcars. The

event pits the area’s four women’s club champions. Tea Cup Classic 2000

will be played at Big Canyon in August (an exact date is pending).

Two-time defending Tea Cup champion Towersey set the golf world on

fire last year, playing 53 holes of competition in one day.

After playing 35 holes of intense match play in the final of the

Women’s Southern California Championships at Mission Viejo Country Club,

Towersey arrived just in time for tee off in Tea Cup Classic III at Mesa

Verde, then won the event for the second year in a row.

Towersey, who lost her putter in transition that day and borrowed one

from the Mesa Verde pro shop for the Tea Cup, might have been dragging by

day’s end. But, instead, she dominated the field, again, winning by seven

strokes to cap an amazing Friday the 13th last August.

Tiger claws: In a tuneup for this weekend’s AT&T; National Pro-Am at

Pebble Beach, Tiger Woods was spotted playing at Big Canyon, where he’s

an honorary member.

When Woods played at Big Canyon on Dec. 24 with his father, Earl, and

friend Brian Hull, he made a hole in one on the par three No. 3 (165

yards) with an eight-iron, then promptly won the Mercedes Championship at

Kapalua for his sixth consecutive PGA Tour title.

Maybe Big Canyon is his good luck charm.

Last year, Bruce Fleisher skipped the Toshiba Senior Classic on his

way to earning Senior PGA Tour Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year

honors.

Fleisher won two of the first three tournaments in 1999, and finished

second in the other event, then raised the red flag for early-season

burnout and withdrew from the Toshiba -- much to the dismay of Toshiba

volunteers from the 552 Club, the fund-raising organization for Hoag

Hospital, which is the event’s operating charity.

Those 552 Club members, including Toshiba co-chairman Jake Rohrer,

remember Fleisher when he played in the old Crosby Southern Pro-Am in

1977 and ’86 (later called the Taco Bell Newport Classic).

Fleisher, who won the Crosby Southern in ’77 at Irvine Coast Country

Club (now Newport Beach), is among those who have committed to the 2000

Toshiba Senior Classic -- which will mark his first appearance on the

course since ’86.

Defending Toshiba champion Gary McCord, ’98 winner Hale Irwin and

crowd favorites Lee Trevino and Chi Chi Rodriguez are also committed.

Volunteers are still being sought by Toshiba Classic officials to work

as scorers, marshals and other positions.

Applications are available on the tournament Web site,

www.ToshibaSeniorClassic.com, or by calling (949) 515-4840.

Richard Dunn’s golf column appears every Thursday.