Sta. Lucia’s Orchard Golf named among Asia’s finest

Orchard Golf and Country Club, a premier development of Sta. Lucia Realty and Development Inc. (SLRDI), has been named one of the top golf courses in Asia during the 6th Asia Pacific Golf Summit held recently at the Empire Hotel and Country Club in Brunei Darussalam.

The Arnold Palmer course of the Orchard Golf & Country Club was named one of the top three courses in the Philippines, as selected by a panel of 25 international raters selected by the publishers of the Asian Golf Monthly e-zine.

Located at Dasmariñas, Cavite, Orchard Golf features two 18-hole championship courses designed by golfing legends Arnold Palmer and Gary Player. The Palmer Course is a traditional parkland layout, measuring over 7,000 yards with fairways winding through the mango groves and punctuated by lakes and large bunkers.

Orchard Golf has been the site of several prestigious international golfing events, including the Johnnie Walker Golf Classic in 1995, which was participated in by golfing superstars such as Greg Norman, Fred Couples and Ernie Els. At the center of the 36-hole facility is a sprawling clubhouse with over 15,000 square meters of floor space, a grand ballroom that can fit more than 500 people, a 12-lane bowling alley, a basketball and volleyball court, tennis courts and badminton courts, a 25-meter swimming pool and kiddie pond, children’s playrooms, a fitness gym and salon, and even a small movie theater.

Story of success

In his speech at the awarding, Orchard president and CEO Conrad Benitez II outlined Orchard’s success story, alongside the presentations from the CEOs of two other world-class courses, Royale Jakarta (Indonesia) and Chiang Mai Highlands (Thailand). The awards night was attended by golfing notables who participated in the Royal Trophy competition, a Ryder Cup-patterned format between professionals from Europe and Asia, captained respectively by Jose Maria Olazabal and Joe Ozaki.

Benitez’s appointment as president in 2003 paved the way for Orchard’s remarkable success, with the implementation of new member policies, maintenance of the golf courses, and institution of measures for environmental management.

With its teeming foliage and various bird species, Orchard Golf has also been designated as a bird and wildlife sanctuary, amid its fleet of electric golf carts, along with a computerized irrigation and wastewater treatment system.

“It is a source of immense pride that we have been able to do all these without increasing our membership dues, spending a total of more than P300 million (over $7 million) in capital expenditures that have been generated purely from our own operations and savings,” Benitez adds.

Orchard general manager and COO Rene Garovillo describes Orchard as the flag carrier among the Sta. Lucia golf courses. “We are the first world-class golf course that the Sta. Lucia Group marketed and built, and our density per course is proof of how much our members prefer the club and its amenities,” Garovillo says.

Recently Orchard Golf just feted its 16th Founders Cup, which has become a member tradition through the years.

Orchard Golf director Raymund Sangil said the four-day event was participated in by 800 golfers and culminated in an awards night where the hole-in-one-prize, a 2012 Mercedes Benz C180 Classic, was won.

Benitez concludes his speech at the Asia Pacific Golf Summit with Orchard’s secret to success. “Our work is our play, we play at work, at the game that we truly love. Our work has never, ever really been work. It has never, ever been just a job, or a duty, or an obligation. It has been a true love that was inevitably destined to be permanent, pure passion. And we are all richer in mind, body and spirit for the rewards of the game of golf.”

SLRDI is the parent company of listed Sta. Lucia Land Inc. (SLI).