Golf: Towersey primed for U.S. Mid-Amateur championship

Richard Dunn

Similar to her days growing up playing golf at Santa Ana Country

Club, Marianne Towersey was the lone female in Monday’s star-studded

foursome in a private exhibition.

And, like her junior days in the 1960s when Towersey (nee Cox) would

beat many of the local boys, Monday’s round was the perfect tuneup for an

upcoming championship.

Towersey, the long-reigning Santa Ana club champion, seems primed for

the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur championship next week at Big Canyon Country

Club.

“I’m looking forward to it,” said Towersey, who will compete Tuesday

and Wednesday as the championship begins with 18-hole stroke-play rounds,

followed by a cut to 64 players (from about 130) and single-elimination

match play.

The U.S. Mid-Amateur championship match is Oct. 8. It is the final

USGA championship of the year.

On Dennis Paulson Day, Towersey and Santa Ana head professional Mike

Reehl shot 3-under-par 69 Monday, while Paulson, an honorary member at

Santa Ana, and men’s club champion Chris Veitch finished at 7-under in

the exhibition to celebrate the club’s favorite son on the PGA Tour.

“Marianne played very well (Monday),” Veitch said. “If she plays in

the U.S. Mid-Amateur like she did (Monday), she’ll do very well there.

Tee to green she was very solid, and she was rolling the ball with her

putter very well.”

The only area woman to qualify for the U.S. Mid-Am (for women 25 and

older), Towersey said her biggest concerns next week are the severe

greens at Big Canyon. “They go so fast,” she said.

Towersey, winner of the locally famous Tea Cup Classic three straight

years, is only two Santa Ana titles away from becoming the Newport-Mesa

community’s all-time leader in club championships. The record could come

as soon as April 2002 (women’s club championships are usually played that

month).

This year, Towersey captured her 16th club championship in 19 years.

Dee Dee White of Newport Beach Country Club has 17 women’s club

championships.

As if Towersey, 49, needs to be reminded going into the U.S. Mid-Am,

she’s the Big Canyon course-record holder for women, shooting a

remarkable 3-under 69 while playing as a guest on April 25.

There will probably be very few rounds under 70 during the mid-am.

Alissa Herron, 27, is the U.S. Mid-Am defending champion.

Towersey, who has turned in the summertime Fletcher Jones

Motorcars/Daily Pilot Club Championship Series (i.e. Tea Cup) into her

own personal showcase, is expected to draw a sizable gallery in the

mid-am. Friends, family and fellow club members are always supportive of

her.

One of Towersey’s biggest fans is her mother, Pat Cox, who captured

two Santa Ana women’s club championships during the Truman Administration

(1947 and ‘52) and two in the Kennedy era (1961 and ‘62).

Santa Ana Country Club is preparing for its big centennial celebration

next year in September.

The oldest golf club in Orange County originally opened in the Peters

Canyon area in a small valley two miles southwest of present-day Irvine

Park in September 1901.

In 1912, club pioneers made a bold move at the time to a 160-acre site

that is now the Castaways.

The club moved to its current location on Newport Boulevard in 1925

and was a hot spot during the “Roaring ‘20s” as one of the first golf

courses in California to use irrigation and grass fairways.

Towersey’s late grandfather, Richard Emison, played at Santa Ana

Country Club when it was located at the Castaways. He was also a club

president.

Newport Harbor High’s golf team will have 32 players carrying placards

during the U.S. Mid-Am next week.

Paul Salata and his band of NFL alumni chums are hosting a big day of

golf to benefit Children’s Hospital of Orange County.

It’s the 22nd annual CHOC Padrinos/NFL Alumni Charity Golf Classic

Oct. 16 at Coto de Caza Golf and Racquet Club.

Each foursome will be captained by a Hall of Famer, former NFL player

or coach, with proceeds going to CHOC. The first-place team wins a trip

to the NFL Alumni Super Bowl of Golf XXI in Maui, Hawaii.

Salata (Linda Isle), the founder of nationally famous Irrelevant Week

and a former receiver in the NFLreceiver, was honored last spring with a

Lifetime Achievement Award by NFL Alumni, Inc.

Richard Dunn’s golf column appears every Thursday.