Towersey keeps going

BRYCE ALDERTON

This year just keeps getting better for Marianne Towersey, the

Newport Beach golfer who seems to show up on a leaderboard in a

national tournament every time you look.

It’s no coincidence because Towersey has game, serious game.

Watching her for the only time in July’s Tea Cup Classic, which

she won for the fifth time in the event’s seven-year history, you

could tell she was in the often-used word “zone,” where every ball

she hit sounded crisp, each swing exhibited the same rhythm and flow

that one can only hope to accomplish from hitting hundreds of balls

on the range.

She plays with focus, visualizing her shot and hitting it, rarely

with any delay.

Her follow through is pronounced. She finishes looking at the

target, whether that be a spot of fairway, or a flagstick tucked

behind a bunker.

That could be why she is so darn accurate, a necessity in golf.

Towersey, who has won an unprecedented 19 women’s club

championships at Santa Ana Country Club, has continued her excellence

in 2003 when she reached the semifinals of last week’s United States

Golf Assn.’s Senior Women’s Amateur Championship.

Marlene Streit, 69, the eventual champion, and Towersey toiled for

24 holes to decide who would advance to the final. Streit, earned a

1-up victory, becoming the oldest champion of a USGA event.

But Towersey has nothing to feel bad about. Second-place in a

national event is something some people only dream of, let alone to

accomplish.

And she is back at it yet again this week. Towersey, along with

Corey Weworski, whom she defeated to win Women’s Golf Assn. Of

California title in May, and Donna Frank, are representing California

at this week’s USGA Women’s State Team Championship in Wellesley,

Mass.

California and Pennsylvania are tied for sixth place at

11-over-par 303, seven shots off the leader, Ohio. Towersey, the boys

and girls golf coach at Newport Harbor High, has shot rounds of 75

and 78 on the par-73 Wellesley Country Club course. The two lowest

scores from each three-woman team are added together for the squad’s

score after each round. Both of Towersey’s rounds have been counted.

The tournament concludes today.

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The September issue of Golf Digest listed the top golf instructors

in each state and the United States. Five teachers from Newport-Mesa

made the top 48 in California.

David Wright, of the Pelican Hill Golf Academy, placed 10th, while

Tom Sargent, Mesa Verde Country Club’s head professional, was ranked

17th by his peers. Glenn Deck, also of Pelican Hill’s Golf Academy,

came in at 28th while Derek Hardy (Pelican Hill) placed 39th. Jamie

Mulligan from Newport Coast ranked 47th.

Ballots were sent to 1,500 California teaching pros who ranked

their peers on a grading scale.

*

Santa Ana Country Club will play host to the fifth annual Tee Off

for Technology Classic from 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. on Nov. 10.

Proceeds will support technology for the students of Newport

Harbor High School. The Newport Harbor Educational Foundation is

sponsoring the event.

For ticket, sponsorships, underwriting or advertising in a program

guide, contact chairman John Houten at (949) 794-3820.