Sta Lucia Tour final leg on at Alta Vista

CEBU Ð This year’s Sta. Lucia Golf Tour comes to a grand finish as 132 players from eight clubs tee off today for the fourth and final leg at the rolling Alta Vista Golf and Country Club here.

The three overall winners of the past three legs Ð Cebu’s Dennis Canoy and Masahisa Kawakami, Beverly Place’s Mike Sanggaran and Mike Mangio and Summit Point’s Lino Magpantay and Yuki Matsuo Ð are all in the Cebu field ready to guide their respective teams to victory in the 36-hole finale.

It’s a wide open battle as format shifts from best-ball net of handicap which was used in the first three stops to a four-to-play, three-to-count team competition on net scores.

Royale Tagaytay is sending a large contingent of 32 players while Rancho Palos Verdes is fielding 28 to serve notice of their strong pitch for the final titles to be disputed in the tournament organized by real estate giant Sta. Lucia Realty for members of clubs flying its green and white banner.

Alta Vista is represented by 24 members, Eagle Ridge is bannered by 20 representatives, Beverly Place and Summit Point each have eight entries while Orchard has four in the grand finale that also gathers most of the division champions from the previous legs.

“It’s been a season of surprises and we can only look forward to another exciting finish. Everyone’s going to have fun,” said Vicente Santos who heads the Sta. Lucia Tour executive committee which has prepared another attractive package of prizes for the Cebu leg.

Exequiel Robles, president and CEO of Sta. Lucia Realty, is also expected to grace the leg in Cebu where Sta. Lucia has established its presence in real estate development long before the arrival of the new players.

Summit Point and Lakewood hosted the first two legs before the Tour regulars flew to Bangkok for a memorable international leg last month.