Stock on the rise for Tea Cup Classic’s Colette Taormina (Big

Canyon Country Club)

Richard Dunn

NEWPORT BEACH - In four months since Colette Taormina won the

ladies club championship at Big Canyon Country Club, her handicap index

has dropped from 11 to 5.

But it has been since Taormina qualified for the Tea Cup Classic that

her life has really changed.

“I have people coming up to me, telling me I didn’t know you were even

a golfer, or I didn’t know you were that good,” said Taormina, whose

little slice of fame appears to have arrived in the form of Tea Cup

Classic IV, as she is hailed in these pages along with three other

women’s club champions in this newspaper’s circulation.

“Teachers at school read (the Daily Pilot articles) and mention it to

my kids, and I think it has brought my kids closer to golf, because

there’s just that excitement. Both of my two sons (Garrett, 13, and

Jordan, 11) have really gotten back into golf again because of it ...

now, they’re trying to figure out who is going to caddie for me. It’s

going to be one of those two or my husband (Vince).”

Taormina, who has seven children, a Tea Cup Classic record for the

women competitors, started playing golf because of her husband. Vince

apparently begged hard enough and one day she played golf with him.

Mostly, they played together on vacations, then she started getting

the hang of it and suddenly she was scoring pretty well. “My husband and

I can go out and play golf and do something together as a couple,”

Taormina said. “It’s been wonderful.”

The 2000 Big Canyon women’s club champion, a Newport Coast resident

who has one girl and six boys between the ages of 17 and 6, has gradually

progressed in her 12 years of playing and now, at 45, she’s at the top of

her game.

“It seems really difficult for me to imagine that I’m playing to that

level,” said Taormina, who was never encouraged to play sports growing up

in Portland, Ore.

A newcomer to the Tea Cup Classic, Taormina plays in the Big Canyon

upper echelon with Sally Holstein, the ’99 Tea Cup Classic participant at

Mesa Verde Country Club, Martha Redfearn and Jeana Kawamura.

In Tea Cup Classic IV, Taormina will play her home course (Big Canyon)

Friday at 2 p.m. in the annual 18-hole shootout to celebrate women’s golf

in the Newport-Mesa community.

“I feel honored to play in this group,” said Taormina, who will tee it

up with two-time defending Tea Cup champion Marianne Towersey (Santa Ana

Country Club), Denise Woodard (Mesa Verde Country Club) and Debbie

Albright (Newport Beach Country Club).

“I’ve heard so much about them and watched them and followed them in

the paper, it’s just an honor. I’ll go out to have some fun and hopefully

play some good golf, once I get over the pressure of people watching us.

This will be the first time I’ve ever had a gallery at this level.

“It will be a new kind of competition for me, so I’m excited about

that. And I enjoy Big Canyon -- it’s very challenging.”

Taormina’s best score at Big Canyon is 80, but this summer she has

sizzled at times during team play, carding a 76 at Yorba Linda Country

Club and 78 at Newport Beach Country Club, scores that have helped lower

her handicap.

“I was playing to an 11 handicap (during the Big Canyon women’s club

championship in April),” said Taormina, who takes lessons from Mesa Verde

head professional Tom Sargent, who merely smiles when she tells him of

her success.

“That’s quite a jump (to a career-low 5.0 index in July),” added

Taormina, who enjoyed a dramatic final round in her first club

championship, coming from seven strokes down in the last nine holes to

force a playoff and eventually win.

This year was also the first playoff in Big Canyon history for a club

championship.

Taormina, who started the final round in third place five shots off

the lead, birdied 17, but was still two strokes behind heading into 18,

where Holstein double bogeyed. Both finished at 342 after 72 holes, then

Taormina won the playoff hole.

Last year, Holstein played well in the Tea Cup Classic at Mesa Verde,

making three birdies and shooting 84 to take third place.

Selby Schriber represented Big Canyon in the Tea Cup in 1997 and ‘98,

winning the inaugural silver tea set in ’97 at Newport Beach.

Taormina said she isn’t long off the tee, but her short game can

usually keep her close to the pack.

“I’m just looking at (the Tea Cup Classic) as another great experience

with golf and another level of play,” Taormina said.

Taormina’s large family has been with Big Canyon since November 1998,

and all six of her boys play golf. Her daughter, Desiree, 17, does not.

“She’s on the rowing team at (Newport Aquatic Center),” Taormina said

proudly.

“When we were growing up, playing any kind of sports wasn’t presented

to us really as one of our options.”

Taormina’s other sons are Vincent, 16, Joseph, 15, and the two

youngest ones, Michael, 7, and Anthony, 6, who are both trying to play on

the Big Canyon junior golf team.

Taormina played out of PGA West in La Quinta prior to 1998.