Venue for greatness

Bryce Alderton

Newport Beach Country Club turned 50 this year and with the Toshiba

Senior Classic at the forefront of a lot of golf enthusiast’s radars

this week and next comes questions and comparisons of how just good

are these Champions Tour players that will make a stop here compared

with the amateur golfer?

The tournament and the timing of the club’s 50th anniversary,

recognized during a weekend ceremony last month, also warrants a look

at the lowest rounds, both during Toshiba and the other 51 weeks of

the year.

Chuck Loos, an NBCC member since 1997 and former managing editor

of the Daily Pilot, graciously researched these feats and should gain

much of the credit.

Hale Irwin, the only two-time winner of the Toshiba Senior

Classic, which celebrates its 10th birthday this year, came back from

five strokes down in the final round of the 1998 tournament to shoot

a 62, eclipsing Hubert Green by one stroke. Irwin carded 31s on both

the front and back nines playing with Lee Trevino and Jim Colbert to

set the men’s course record in tournament play.

Irwin’s round included the famous “rake incident” on the par-3

17th hole. His tee shot landed short of the green and began rolling

toward the lake that fronts the green, but a rake prevented the ball

from rolling into the water. Tournament rules called for bunker rakes

to be placed outside of bunkers, not inside, which is the normal

procedure at NBCC.

Theo “Ted” Norby, a teaching pro at the Aviara Golf Academy in

Carlsbad, carded a 61 on June 28, 2000, the lowest score in a

non-tournament round on the current course.

Norby, a former Corona del Mar High and UC Irvine golfer, was

playing a friendly round with Dave Donnellan, then an assistant pro

at NBCC, and Eric Woods, a fellow pro and longtime club member.

Woods shot a 66 that day and said Norby’s round was “the most

fantastic round of golf I have ever seen. I hit my tee shot within

three feet on the par-3 eighth hole and Norby hit his within a foot.”

Norby birdied 11 holes, including the first and last four, with

just one bogey.

“I remember going out there that day, not expecting anything

really, and I just started hitting it close early,” Norby said at the

time.

The low round for a women’s tournament at the club isn’t held by a

member, but a familiar face in golfing circles around here --

Marianne Towersey.

The heralded Towersey, a 19-time women’s club champion at Santa

Ana Country Club and five-time winner of the annual Tea Cup Classic,

shot a 68 on Aug. 8, 2002, during the Seahorse Classic, the annual

women’s member-guest tournament. Towersey, winner of many amateur

titles and golf coach at Newport Harbor High, broke eight-time club

champion Debbie Albright’s amateur course record of 70.

Her playing partner, Sandi Coffer, a former NBCC women’s club

champion, said, “It was great fun watching a perfect round of golf.

Marianne made no mistakes, no bogies, and just made it look really

easy.”

Pam Higgins, a former LPGA Tour player who has been a teaching pro

at NBCC since 1984, put Towersey’s round in perspective.

“Marianne Towersey’s 68 has to be considered the record for women

on the course as it’s configured today,” Higgins said.

Higgins should know, since she holds the lowest score (65) for a

woman when the club was known as the Irvine Coast Country Club.

Higgins set the mark during her first pro-am victory in 1972.

The Pilot’s Laurie Beckland reported that Higgins “made seven

birdies and sank a 20-foot putt for eagle on the 16th hole to come up

eight-under-par.”

Beckland added that Higgins hadn’t ever completed 18 holes without making a bogey.

“As far as anyone can remember, no one, man or woman, has come

near the 65 since the course underwent major remodeling last year

(1971).”

Of course, history has proven otherwise, but the pros aren’t the

only ones who have turned in memorable rounds.

They just do it when everyone is watching.