Highland ladies rock & rule the fairways

MANILA, Philippines - The youngest is barely 17 and the oldest is pushing 70. Seven years ago, these gals and grannies didn’t know each other from Eve. Now, they are skirted sisters bonded with a mission  to rock and rule the fairways of the islands.

Serendipitously bound by their common passion to golf, their quest has surprisingly been successful for a neophyte team. Surely, they must draw inspiration from their milieu with its numinous location  Tagaytay Midlands Golf  one side meanders along the deceptively serene Taal Lake and island volcano, another boasts a mystic backdrop, Mount Maria Makiling’s fabled profile and flowing mane.

Their latest conquest: champions of the just-concluded 2010 WGAP (Women’s Golf Association of the Philippines) Circuit wherein nine golf teams competed in eight golf courses from May to October.

The Tagaytay Highlands Ladies were already runaway winners after the seventh leg held at Midlands. The final fight at Sta. Elena was a frolic on the fairway to claim the plum.

Dionne Cu, the group’s president, said: “In the golfing community, this is the real deal  a big, big deal because it involves competing with amateur golfers of varying skills and winning by a wide margin.”

Mely Leyeza chimed in: “Credit goes to all of our players who participated in the highly competitive games but especially to our Class B members who are the division champions too!”

Totelle Dimson (front), the Class B division’s top scorer, displays their trophy with teammates Marissa Vergara, Roni Wuson, Princess Katigbak, Mely Leyeza, Marge Tan and Bern Wong.

On Nov. 20, the ladies will stage the fifth edition of the Highlands Cup, open to men and women amateurs at the Tagaytay Midlands Golf Course. Partial proceeds of the fund-raiser will benefit the Sisters of Mary, Boys and Girls Town in Silang, Cavite, and the Pearl Buck Foundation, Philippines.

“Both sponsors and players look forward to our annual tournament because we have everything to make it fun and memorable  food, prizes and a raffle,” said Connie Mamaril of Regent Travel and tourney co-chair. Hole-in-one prizes are a Royal Caribbean cruise and a business class Delta Airlines ticket to the US west coast.

“This year’s theme will be Filipiniana,” said Gie Bote, one of the team’s sports captains, “with rondalla music, possibly tinikling, and fairway food of bibingka, puto bumbong, taho, sorbets, coffee from Seattle’s Best and Café de Lipa.”

Rosalind Wee, grandmother of nine, inked the biggest sponsor, CATS Motor, exclusive distributor of Mercedes Benz. Marissa Vergara, grandmother of 13, scouted for “ultra-unique Filipiniana trophies.” Mabek Kawsek, an author, is finalizing her location décor.

Tourney chair Dionne Cu added: “Every member is responsible to make the 5th Highlands Cup a success. It is how we perform as a team throughout the year.”

Team Highlands was formed in 2006 primarily for the first Ladies Federation Games, a series of home-and-away match plays  à la the Ryder Cup  among equally skilled women golfers organized by the male-dominated Federation of Golf Clubs Philippines.

Team sport captains Sandy Prieto-Romualdez and Marilen Yaptangco of Baron Travel and Royal Caribbean Cruise led the group to its first victory, strategizing into the wee hours for four months “with scorecards laid out on the kitchen table and phones ringing off the hook” between their houses.

“It’s the best team ever!” said Sandy, wife of a mining executive, mother of three sons, and philanthropist.

Champions on the course, the 38-member Tagaytay Highlands Ladies are also formidable females off the course. With their enviable camaraderie, they can literally build and populate a village, given their diversified and expansive expertise in real estate, media, travel, education, flowers, furniture, flooring, food, fashion, medicine, wellness, construction, banking, accountancy, plus advocacies for children, women and animals.

The cast includes mother/daughter  Marixi and Sandy Prieto, Lilibeth de Villa with daughter Angela (16), and Jessalynn Tan with daughter Patricia (15).

Holistic health advocate Riva Galveztan and “catwoman” Totelle Dimson Becky Albert, Joji Bautista, Cathy Borja, Gie Bote, Karen

Buenaventura, Faye Celones, Dionne Cu, Maripaz Domingo, Nini Eustaquio, Maline Flores, Erlie Gamut, Rosalie Heo, Farah Imperial, Princess Katigbak, Mabek Kawsek, Mely Leyeza, Tricia Maclang, Connie Mamaril, Deena Mendiola, Lilia Patero, Bern Quiazon, Marlo Roxas, Hedy See, Marge Tan, Mayenne Varua, Marissa Vergara, Bern Wong, Rosalind Wee, Veronica Wuson, and Marilen Yaptangco. 

Members of Tagaytay Highlands’ winning Class C team with their trophies (front from left): Jessalynn Tan, Highlands president Dionne Cu, Cathy Borja; and (back row from left) Marlo Roxas, Patricia Tan, Rosalind Wee and Deena Mendiola

Each embodies the powerful Filipina  independent, strong-willed women with a can-do ethic. After starting and building the country’s leading carrageen business with her husband, and branching out to other businesses, “I had a wake-up call,” said Rosalind Wee, past team president.

More than 10 years ago, a surgery that excised a brain tumor the size of a golf ball left her legally blind. “Depressed, I couldn’t go back to work, and the doctor advised me to play golf,” she said. Deprived of peripheral vision and visual depth, Rosalind became a natural “putting queen”! Her non-golf days are devoted to empowering women and children through the Quezon City Red Cross, the Pearl Buck Foundation, Go Negosyo, among others.

When a kitty cries for food on the fairway, Totelle Dimson, sometimes called the “catwoman,” will quickly part with her brown bag of goodies. Recently, an Aspin (asong Pinoy), starved and near death, morphed into Gomer, a handsome, award-winning dog due to her loving care and medicine. Totelle is an active member of CARA (Compassion and Responsibility for Animals).