Walking on familiar turf

Bryce Alderton

All four women who will tee off at 1:30 p.m. today in Tea Cup Classic

VII have been here before. And that goes more than one way.

Defending and four-time Tea Cup champion Marianne Towersey (Santa

Ana Country Club), Akemi Khaiat (Mesa Verde Country Club), Debbie

Albright (Newport Beach Country Club) and Sally Holstein (Big Canyon

Country Club) have all traversed the 5,792-yard course at Mesa Verde

(they will play from the yellow tees) and all have participated in

the tournament, which began in 1997 to promote women’s golf, bring

the golf community closer together and celebrate the four women’s

club champions from the private courses in the Daily Pilot

circulation.

Albright has won the 18-hole stroke-play event once, in 2001,

while Khaiat and Holstein are each making their second appearance in

the event.

Last year Towersey made an 11-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole at

Santa Ana to win by one shot in the most compelling finish in Tea Cup

history. With last year’s victory, Towersey, who has won a

Newport-Mesa record 19 women’s club championships, became only the

second player to win the tournament on her home course. Albright also

performed the feat at her home venue

This year, it’s Khaiat’s turn to play her home course. But she has

said that there’s added pressure to do well in front of friends,

fellow members and anyone else who wants to come and watch the drama

for free.

Towersey feeds off of the galleries.

“It’s fun to have friends following,” Towersey said. “Generally, I

don’t have a lot of people watching and rooting for me, so that is

the great aspect to it. I think that has helped me succeed.”

All four have played together and know each other, making for a

familiar feel to this year’s tournament.

“We are a friendly group of women,” Towersey said. “I’m just

trying to shoot as close to par as possible. Mesa Verde is a great

venue.”

“I love the course and the new clubhouse,” Holstein added.

Mesa Verde’s new 40,000 square-foot clubhouse opened in January

and the expanded 125,000 square-foot practice facility debuted the

first week of June.

Golfers will get the chance to shoot at six target greens (three

additional ones were added) along with the three greenside bunkers

and single fairway bunker adjacent to the two USGA-specified practice

surfaces.

The plush practice range will surely get use from Albright, an

eight-time champion at NBCC who prefers to spend as much time as

possible honing her game, no matter the course.

She played on a winning team at Big Canyon’s member-guest, placing

first in the low-gross ace flight.

Big Canyon is where Holstein calls home, but she also expects the

unexpected when it comes to golf.

“Every day is different, even on the same course,” said Holstein,

who places emphasis on her short game heading into today’s

tournament.

“The hindrance is that I am playing with other ladies who can hit

it a lot farther than do,” she said.

Holstein showed her resiliency and determination before. She

trailed the leader by two shots heading into 18 -- during Big Canyon’s club championship -- and parred the final hole. After her

competitor double-bogeyed (she hit into the water), the two went to a

playoff, won by Holstein with a par.

“She played so well, I wasn’t expecting that,” Holstein said.

With the Tea Cup, uncertainty and down-to-the-wire finishes have

become regular descriptors, especially the past three years.

Towersey beat Albright in a playoff at Big Canyon in 2000, but the

Newport Beach member returned the favor the following year when she

won by two shots over her Santa Ana counterpart.

Last year Towersey needed to sink an 11-foot birdie putt on the

final hole to deny any hopes of a playoff with Big Canyon’s Olivia

Slutzky, the first pregnant player to compete in the Tea Cup, to

claim her fourth Tea Cup title.

The strategy this year for Towersey?, who has been “playing in as

many tournaments as she can.”

“Try to shoot as close to par as possible, but I try not to put

too many expectations on myself,” she said.

Khaiat, a three-time winner of Newport Beach’s women’s club

championship when she was a member there in the early 1990s, makes

her second straight appearance in the Tea Cup.

The Tokyo native has been working with Tom Sargent, Mesa Verde’s

head pro, in hopes of claiming the club’s first Tea Cup title. Khaiat

feels confident in her game, which produced another club championship

at Riviera, where she is also a member, last month. The Japanese

national team member missed qualifying for the U.S. Women’s Amateur

by two strokes at Mission Viejo Country Club, but has developed a

strong streak since 1986.

In that time Khaiat has qualified either for the U.S. Women’s

Amateur or U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur. In October she will compete in

the Mid-Amateur, where she was the first-round medalist last year.

“I’m hoping to get back to the national level and compete more,”

said Khaiat, who is kept active raising her son, Anthony, 2, along

with husband Laurent.

Mesa Verde figures to keep not only Khaiat, but her three

opponents busy today.

“I think anyone could win it,” Towersey said.