Eagle Ridge grabs lead over Alta Vista

Eagle Ridge made its move in its home course, as expected, grabbing the overall lead from Alta Vista on Friday with a splurge of team and individual victories to set the stage for a final round showdown in the Sta. Lucia Golf Tour 2003.

The Eagle Ridge golfers came a win short of completing what could have been a mighty sweep of all titles disputed in the third leg played at their Norman course in a show of force that boosted their campaign for the overall plum.

Eagle Ridge took Groups II and III and placed second in Group I that formed the bulk of the 40 points it amassed for the leg, edging past defending champion Alta Vista after three stages with 97 points.

Although it denied Eagle Ridge the coveted sweep by ruling Group I, Alta Vista could only score 27 and fell a point behind in the overall standings at 96.

Both teams battled it out for the last time yesterday at the Palmer course of the Orchard Golf and Country Club with the title race practically starting from scratch.

The Sta. Lucia Tour is sponsored by Unirock, Petron, Readycon, Gainers Marketing, Kubota, Kodak, Samsung, Titleist, Footjoy, Yamaha, Omega and Pagcor with Marco Polo (Davao), Marriot (Cebu) and Dusit Hotel Nikko (Manila) as partner hotels and Cebu Pacific as the official carrier.

Eagle Ridge 5 made up of Cristeto Dinopol, Ariel dela Cruz, Wendy Go and Joel Agbanlog scored 115 to win Group II by six over Royale Tagaytay while Bernie Bernardo, Gerardo Brufal, Roberto Tapaoan and Robert Tan led a 1-2-3 finish by Eagle team in Group III.

All individual titles went to Eagle Ridge bets with Dinopol winning Class A after scoring 46, Lee Moon Ho topping Class B with 43, Antonio del Rosario bagging Class C with 37 and William Enriquez prevailing in Class D with 35.

Rancho Palos Verdes, which topped the Mindanao leg, virtually kissed its overall bid goodbye after a poor showing at Eagle Ridge.

The Davao squad earned only 22 and fell 20 points behind Eagle with 77.

Royale Tagaytay, riding on a runner-up finish in Group II, remained mired in fourth at 61 and Orchard is dead last at 56 with only a third place showing in Group II to show.

The awarding ceremonies last night at the Palmer Hall of the Orchard was highlighted by the grand raffle where a residential property in Caliraya Springs was given away.