Women’s golf: Tea Cup Classic VI set for Santa Ana CC

Richard Dunn

SANTA ANA HEIGHTS - The sixth annual Tea Cup Classic, the venerable

18-hole event to celebrate the women’s club golf champions in the area,

will be played Sept. 4 at Santa Ana Country Club, Santa Ana Director of

Golf Mike Reehl said.

The date, a Wednesday, is the latest in the summer the Tea Cup Classic

has been held, but it could be the most competitive in the history of the

event.

In addition to defending Tea Cup champion Debbie Albright of Newport

Beach Country Club and three-time winner Marianne Towersey of Santa Ana,

Tea Cup Classic VI will feature a new champion at Mesa Verde Country Club

(Akemi Khaiat), while Olivia Slutzky returns from Big Canyon Country

Club.

The Tea Cup Classic, started by this sports section in 1997 to crown

an annual Daily Pilot women’s club champion, was designed to promote

women’s golf and bring the golf community closer together.

The four women’s club champions in the Daily Pilot circulation are

invited each summer to participate in the one-day, stroke-play event,

which is part of the Fletcher Jones Motorcars/Daily Pilot Club

Championship Series.

Albright captured her seventh consecutive Newport Beach title this

year, while breaking club championship records for margin of victory (36

strokes) and total scoring (72-75-74-76--297).

Albright, who finished second in the Tea Cup Classic in 1997, ’98 and

2000, won on her home course last year. She led the field after 13 holes

and never looked back, carding a 6-over 78.

Towersey, the area’s all-time leader in club championships with 18

titles at Santa Ana, won the California Senior Women’s Amateur

Championship earlier this year.

A three-time Tea Cup winner (1998-2000), Towersey has won 18 of the

last 21 women’s club championships at Santa Ana to become the career

leader in the Newport-Mesa community for club titles (men or women).

Last year, in her first year in the seniors (50 and over), Towersey

was the medalist at the U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur Championship.

Slutzky became Big Canyon’s first back-to-back women’s champion in

almost 10 years as she held on for a 10-stroke victory, shooting

79-76-76-83--313.

A former equestrian competitor, Slutzky didn’t start playing golf

until seven years ago at age 27.

Khaiat, one of Japan’s top amateur female golfers, captured the 2002

Mesa Verde title in her first year of eligibility.

The medalist at the 1996 Women’s U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship at San

Diego Country Club, Khaiat shot 84-79-79-80--322 to win the Mesa Verde

championship by 23 strokes.

Khaiat, who has played in several U.S. Amateur, U.S. Mid-Amateur and

Japan Open championships, has been a member of the Japan National Team

for the World Amateur (Espirito Trophy) several times and was elected

co-captain of the team at the 1998 World Amateur in Santiago, Chile.

She’s also a former member at Newport Beach and Riviera, where she won

women’s club titles all five years in which she competed. Khaiat won

Newport Beach championships in 1992, ’93 and ‘94, and ended Sandi

Coffer’s streak of five straight titles.

At Mesa Verde this year, Khaiat ended Denise Woodard’s streak of six

consecutive titles. Woodard was second.