Lumanog paces Sta. Lucia golf

Erwin Lumanog outscored everyone in his division with a 38-point effort and helped Orchard Team B to the Group 1 lead in a memorable opening round of the Sta. Lucia Golf Tour highlighted by Eduardo Espejo’s hole-in-one on Friday at the Palmer course of the Orchard Golf and Country Club course in Dasmariñas, Cavite.

Five-handicapper Lumanog’s steady touch rubbed on his teammates, all Korean expatriates who joined him in an early breakaway that saw them score no lower than 33 and race to a 12-point lead in the centerpiece division of the unique event organized by real estate giant Sta. Lucia exclusively for members of various clubs under its umbrella.

Kyu Young Hwang scored 36, Kun Ro Yoon added a 35 and one of the 33s submitted by Hyung Soo Kim and Sang Jin Lee counted in the best four out of five players format used in the first half of the tourney with the second stage played yesterday at the adjacent Player course.

While Orchard dominated Group I, teams from Eagle Ridge shot their way up the leaderboards in the two other groups.

But Espejo made the Royale Tagaytay banner flying high as the Del Pilar Academy High School president won for himself a Yamaha golf car donated by Kart Plaza Manufacturing when he aced the seventh hole with an Adams Tight Lies No. 3 and a Newing ball.

"Perfect start," said Vicente Santos, chairman of the executive committee of the eventful first day of the Sta. Lucia Tour’s kickoff leg that will have its second leg at Alta Vista on Nov. 3-4 and the third stop at Eagle Ridge on Dec. 1-2.

Two teams from Eagle Ridge shared the top spot in Group 2 as the group of Shinichi Ogihara, Karen Kime, Shinichi Yamaguchi, Ricardo Antonio and Danilo Mercado aggregated 138 like the squad of Nestor Jabson, Vincent Tiamsic, Benjamin Ng, Alberto de Jesus and Emilio Espejo Jr.

The Eagle Ridge group of Edgardo Villamor, Ma. Victoria Ignacio, Ambrosio de Luna, Raymond Estrada and Cary Quioge compiled 153 to pace another Eagle Ridge team by 13 points in Group III.