Sta. Lucia Tour up at Lakewood today

MANILA, Philippines - The Lakewood Golf Club hosts the second leg of the course-hopping Sta. Lucia Golf Tour today with most of the trophy winners from the opening leg returning to seek a repeat at the hazard-laden layout in Cabanatuan, Nueva Ecija.

At least 90 players from five golf clubs operating under the umbrella of real estate giant Sta. Lucia Realty are seeing action in the continuation of a four-leg circuit over four months that will also bring them to Cebu and the international leg in Bangkok, Thailand.

Letty Uy, the woman of rags-to-riches story who is behind the NE Group of Companies which is the joint venture partner of Sta. Lucia for the Lakewood project, is throwing a big bash for the participants tonight in coordination with Royce Motors, Corp. and Alsons Insurance Brokers Corp. to celebrate the debut of Lakewood as a Sta. Lucia Tour venue.

The Sta. Lucia Tour is designed to firm up and foster inter-club cooperation among the members of Sta. Lucia-operated courses that keeps growing each year.

“It’s (Lakewood) a brand-new venue that most of the participants are playing for the first time so we expect a lot of surprises. We doff our hats to our co-host for adding spice to this first visit and new collaboration,” said Vicente Santos of the Tour executive committee.

Nueva Ecija Gov. Aurelio ”Oyie” Umali is partnering with Jonar Austria in the event which will feature the winning tandem in Division 4 during the previous leg Ruben Macalalad and Lucas Canilao of Royale Tagaytay.

The other notable pairs to watch are Mike Poobalan/Mike Mangio, Ben Espina/Aster Lagura and Willy Dulay/Boy Ocampo.

Sta. Lucia’s growing family of topnotch clubs already includes Eagle Ridge and Orchard in Cavite, Summit Point and Royale Tagaytay in Batangas, Lake Caliraya in Batangas, Lakewood in Cabanatuan, Beverly Place in Pampanga, Alta Vista in Cebu and Rancho Palos Verdes in Davao.

After Lakewood, the Tour regulars will bring their act to Bangkok for a tourney serving as the third stop on Aug. 23-26. The series winds up at the Alta Vista Golf and Country Club in Pardo, Cebu on Oct. 10-13 where format shifts to a four-to-play, three-to-count Molave point system.