Alta Vista makes imposing start in Sta. Lucia Tour

DAVAO – Alta Vista served notice of its championship potential by taking the lead in two of the three divisions in the opening round Friday of the third Sta. Lucia Golf Tour at the all-weather Rancho Palos Verdes course in Mandug, Indangan here.

The margins were slim though.

Dennis Canoy and Ramontito Garcia fired 51 and 50 points, respectively, to lead the assault for Alta Vista 1 which opened up a two-point lead over a rock-solid Palos Verdes 1 in Group I of the three-division team play with a best-three tally of 148 points. Carl Almario was the third scorer with his 46.

Palos Verdes was dangerously close at 146 built around a day-best 53 equivalent to one-over par in medal play by Marcelino Tibor and a 52 by Paul Larrabaster. Two-time champion Dan Salvador III could only score 49 and his Orchard team was in third at 138.

Alta Vista 6 got scores from Jufil Sato (44), Felix Villanueva (44) and Eduardo Manzano (36) for 124 and a three-point lead over Eagle Ridge 2 and a five-point spread over Palos Verdes 3.

Two Eagle Ridge teams found themselves tied at 111 in Group III of the event backed by TaylorMade, Unirock Corp. and Readycon as major sponsors. Other backers are Philippine Airlines as the official airline, Kodak, Kubota, Gainers Marketing, Cebu Pacific and Omega. Hole-in-one sponsors are Jieda Motors Philippines and Yamaha. Hyatt Regency (Manila), Cebu Plaza Hotel (Visayas) and Marco Polo (Mindanao) are the official hotels. Scoring for the series is being carried out by the Information Professionals Inc. (IPI).

The Eagle Ridge 5 squad banked on the 45 of Jose Bustos Nepomuceno, 37 of Benito Oblena and 29 of Joel Agbanlog to match a similar total by a sister team which got its points from Danilo Olanosa (41).