Tea Cup Classic: Debbie Albright

Richard Dunn

NEWPORT BEACH - For a mother to bond with her daughter is

priceless, but it doesn’t always happen, especially when the child grows

to be a teenager.

There’s nothing awkward about 14-year-old Katie Albright playing golf

with her locally famous mother, Debbie.

In fact, it’s cool for the future Corona del Mar High girls golfer to

tee it up with her mother, especially after investing in a new driver.

“It’s tough when your 14-year-old daughter starts hitting the ball

farther than you do,” said Debbie Albright, who has carved her name in

Newport Beach Country Club annals with six consecutive women’s club

championships.

With age on her side (she’s 43) and the fact that her game is

improving every year (she’s currently a 1 handicap), Albright appears to

have a chance of someday breaking the club record of nine straight

titles, held by Dee Dee White from 1967 to ’75. Albright would have to

win titles through 2005 to eclipse the mark. (White is the all-time

leader with 17 club championships.)

Albright, however, isn’t concerned about The Streak. Her Newport Beach

club championship victories are becoming more widespread -- she won this

year’s title by a career-high 19 strokes -- and her scores are getting

lower.

“It seems to be hanging in there,” Albright said of golf game, which

she will put on display Friday in Tea Cup Classic V on her home course at

1 p.m.

“You know, people put so much effort in as a beginning golfer, you

develop good habits, and, I love the game so much, I don’t let a few bad

shots bother me anymore.”

Albright, who has finished as the Tea Cup bridesmaid three times

(1997, ’98 and 2000), shot a remarkable four-round 305 to win this year’s

Newport Beach title on May 18. Brenda Parrott and Janice Sauter ranked

next in the club’s low-gross championship flight, while Cathy Vrdolyak

won low net.

But Albright, the mother of two young teenagers, relishes the moments

she can play 18 with her daughter, a freshman at CdM in the fall.

“It’s fun to have a teenage daughter out there,” Albright said. “You

don’t get to spend too much time with them anymore. They’re too busy

going to the beach.”

Albright, of course, would love to win Tea Cup Classic V. But she

realizes three-time defending champion Marianne Towersey (Santa Ana

Country Club) is a heavy favorite, while Tea Cup newcomer Olivia Slutzky

(Big Canyon Country Club) and veteran Denise Woodard (Mesa Verde Country

Club) will bring plenty of game.

“It’s a good group of girls playing in the Tea Cup Classic,” Albright

said. “It’s a matter of playing well on that day ... I don’t think Olivia

has played the golf course much (at Newport Beach Country Club), but

Marianne and Denise have played it a bunch, so I don’t know if there’s

much of an advantage (playing at home). I think they know the course as

well as I do.”

Last year in Tea Cup Classic IV at Big Canyon Country Club, Albright

and Towersey both shot 4-over 76, forcing the first playoff in Tea Cup

history (won by Towersey on the first extra hole, No. 18).

In Tea Cup Classic I, Albright shot 79 on her home course as Big

Canyon’s Selby Schriber won the inaugural event at Newport Beach with a

74. Albright was also second to Towersey in Tea Cup Classic II, when

Towersey smoked her home course at Santa Ana and won by seven strokes.

Albright, originally from New Zealand, was introduced to golf by her

husband, Jock, whom she met in Cabo San Lucas in 1981 and married two

years later, never to return to New Zealand to live.

As a 19 handicapper in 1989, Albright started taking golf lessons from

Paul Hahn, now the Newport Beach head professional, and her scores began

to drop. Seven years later, she was the club champion.

The Tea Cup Classic, hosted by Newport Beach Country Club for the

second time, begins a second cycle, or rotation, for the cozy, summertime

event. Each club has hosted the event once and claims a sense of

tournament ownership.

The Tea Cup Classic is part of the Fletcher Jones Motorcars/Daily

Pilot Club Championship Series. It was created in 1997 to promote women’s

golf and bring the Newport-Mesa golf community closer together, while

crowning a Daily Pilot champion.

The four women’s club champions in this newspaper’s circulation are

invited to participate in the event.