Tea Cup Classic’s Marianne Towersey (Santa Ana Country Club) has

that classic swing

Richard Dunn

NEWPORT BEACH - Growing up on the cusp of the Upper Newport Bay in

Santa Ana Heights, Marianne Towersey would hit golf balls into the Back

Bay, retrieve them and hit some more.

These days, you couldn’t do that with the bike path below and

modern-day regulations posted throughout the pristine ecological reserve.

But those hours of solitude with a 7-iron in her hands and a sunset in

the distance has been deemed worthy of helping to develop what is widely

considered the finest female golf swing in the land.

Some even say it’s the best swing, period, male or female, in the

area.

Towersey has always been at the top in her peer group throughout her

life in softball, volleyball, tennis and surfing, and just about anything

else in athletics, according to her friends. But it is golf that has

captured her heart.

She plays her game of passion often and very well. She’s longer than

most -- men or women -- off the tee and plays solid around the green.

About 2 1/2 years ago, she started using a long putter and her scores

have dropped, as if Michael Jordan needed another move or Tiger Woods

another shot.

If Towersey’s sharpshooting long putter is working, it could be lights

out for the rest in the group Friday in the fourth annual Tea Cup Classic

at Big Canyon Country Club (2 p.m.).

Towersey is the two-time defending Tea Cup champion with nothing less

than Hall of Fame credentials as she enters Tea Cup Classic IV.

And, as if she needed more fuel for the fire while going for a

three-peat, Towersey owns the course record at Big Canyon with a 3-under

69, accomplished April 25.

The winner of 15 of the last 18 Santa Ana Country Club women’s

championships -- the 2000 championship was postponed until later this

month because of inclement weather in late April -- Towersey is on a pace

to become the Newport-Mesa community’s all-time leader (men or women) in

club titles, a record held by Dee Dee White of Newport Beach Country Club

with 17.

A Stanford history major, Towersey grew up in a family of Santa Ana

Country Club golfers and became a junior standout, and played golf and

tennis at Stanford.

For longtime club members in the area, Towersey’s golf swing is

near-legendary status.

“Marianne Towersey and Mike Reehl (Santa Ana Country Club Director of

Golf) might have the two best golf swings in this area,” said Danny Bibb,

who grew up playing golf with Towersey and Reehl in the late 1960s.

Bibb, who also played at Corona del Mar High with Reehl when the Sea

Kings won the CIF Southern Section title in 1967, has won more men’s club

championships (11) than anyone in this newspaper’s circulation.

But the heralded Big Canyon Country Club member still envies what he

sees in Towersey’s game. “I wish I had her swing,” Bibb said.

Duffy Duffield, who grew up and attended school with Towersey from

kindergarten to the end of high school at CdM, said Towersey later played

softball against his wife and crushed pitches at the plate.

“Marianne just has that natural swing,” said Duffield, the local

electric boat aficionado and Santa Ana Country Club member.

Towersey, a mother of two sons, is a frequent tournament player and

considered a favorite wherever she tees it up.

“If you’re going to play in anything, you’re probably going to play

against Marianne. She plays in everything,” said Mesa Verde Country Club

women’s champion Denise Woodard, part of the Tea Cup Classic foursome

with Towersey, Colette Taormina of Big Canyon and Debbie Albright of

Newport Beach.

Last year in Tea Cup Classic III, Towersey achieved the remarkable

after competing for 35 holes in the match-play finals of the Women’s

Southern California Championships at Mission Viejo Country Club, then

heading over to Mesa Verde to make a delayed afternoon tee time and win

the event by seven strokes. And, with a different putter, because she

left hers behind.

“Maybe I was too tired to be nervous (about playing in the Tea Cup),”

said Towersey, who also won Tea Cup Classic II at Santa Ana in 1998 by

seven strokes.

Towersey completed a 53-hole day last Aug. 13, opening the Tea Cup

Classic with a birdie, after barely missing eagle when she nailed her

second shot from the left rough to within two inches of the flag.

She tapped in for birdie with her driver, because her putter was

missing (she later borrowed a putter from the Mesa Verde pro shop).

Towersey started with only 12 clubs in her bag and added two putters

along the way -- one from the pro shop, the other her own after Reehl

retrieved it from Mission Viejo.

Towersey has been involved in memorable rounds her entire career,

including, at age 16, a victory in match play over future LPGA Hall of

Famer JoAnne Carner (nee Gunderson) in the first round of the 1967 U.S.

Women’s Amateur. Towersey went on to the quarterfinals that year, and a

1999 issue of Golf World magazine included Towersey’s win over Gunderson

as one of the country’s 10 greatest upsets of the century.

This year, leading up to Tea Cup Classic IV and the U.S. Women’s

Mid-Amateur, also at Big Canyon (Oct. 3-8), one of Towersey’s most

impressive golf feats was shooting 69 at Big Canyon.

After several rounds in the low-to-mid 70s by numerous women since the

course at Big Canyon was reconstructed in the fall of 1998, Towersey

became the first to break 70 in the Ladies/Guest Day, sinking five

birdies (along with two bogeys) in her record-setting performance.

Towersey cracked the 70 barrier for only the second time in her

distinguished amateur career. She also shot 69 in a round last year in

Minneapolis.

Towersey does not hold the women’s course record at Santa Ana, a mark

that belongs to LPGA Tour member Pearl Sinn, who carded a 63 in early

January 1999 -- ironically, while playing with Towersey.

Towersey, who won her most recent SACC title (1999) by 36 strokes, was

a primary reason the Tea Cup Classic was created by the Daily Pilot. The

large margins of victory by most of the women’s club champions in the

area spurred the idea for the 18-hole shootout.