THE ROYAL Garden Golf and Country Club opens today at the most auspicious moment: on the eighth hour of the eighth day of the eighth month of the year two thousand and eight – that is 8888.
Beyond the feng shui and all that Chinese belief in the potency of the number 8, one can’t help but wax poetic beholding the place.
Stunning in its magnificence is its gateway – an arc de triomphe, memorializing the renowned artistry and craftsmanship of the people of Pampanga, as well as their courage, resiliency and determination to rise and excel from the devastation of the Mount Pinatubo eruptions in 1991.
Enter then a green, green rolling sprawl of grass and palms, sinuously swaying to the cool gentle breeze. Beneath the azure skies and clouds of immaculate white, backdropped on the west by the blue-green mountains of the Zambales ranges, now-quiet Pinatubo included. On the east, majestic Arayat rises with the early morning sun, with its promise of a beautiful new day.
Nature at its pristine best, still bettered by Graeco-Roman statuary serving as fountains and tee markers. At the lagoon, rising as it were from the depths, Neptune and a nymph on massive horses. All these evoking ancient grandeur as if only recently unearthed. All these inspiring a feeling of a Louvre or Versailles experience, only al fresco.
Look for tee houses and find none. Only handcrafted gazebos bespeaking of luxurious refinement.
And the piece de resistance — a magnificent country club straight from the Renaissance: frescoed ceilings intricately carved columns and cornices, period fixtures, furnishings and furniture pieces.
That classical elegance fused with the modern amenities of a fine-dining restaurant, a bar and grill, a coffeeshop, pro-shop, men’s gym, sauna for men and women, a Jacuzzi, and on its second floor, a corporate boardroom with mini-bar.
So what about the course itself? Frustrated golfer am I, so let us simply refer to the collaterals.
An 18-Hole All-Weather Championship Course. Its expanse meeting the standards of global competitions, making it a must-play for qualifiers to international tournaments. The only golf course in the area playable even at night.
A 320 yard-Driving Range to fully exploit the driving potential of any golfer, both the amateur and the pro.
Plus the usual putting greens, aesthetically, rather than strategically, located around the clubhouse.
And the latest model golf carts ranging from two- to eight-seaters.
"Aesthetically appealing, physically and mentally challenging, golf – at the Royal Garden – is not just a game. Golf becomes a royal experience." So went the promise.
Raring to get royal?
Find the Royal garden Golf and Country Club astraddle the boundary of Angeles City and Porac town and accessed through the Circumferential Road in Barangay Cutcut, Angeles.
Let us get it from the collaterals again. At eight meters above the city surface level, the Royal Garden Golf and Country Club is totally free from floods and water run-offs and is abundant with the freshest breeze all year round.
Centrally located, it is a short five minutes from the Clark Freeport and the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport. The Dau Exit of the North Luzon Expressway is about twenty-five minutes away. And with the opening of the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway, the Royal Garden is but a forty-five-minute drive from Subic, and thirty from Tarlac.
So there.
A joint-venture development project of the Royal Garden Estate, represented by renowned Angeles City master craftsman and industrialist Ruperto Cruz, and South Korea’s Nam Suek Leisure Estate Corp., represented by its president Nam Suek, the Royal garden Golf and Country Club is one magnificent testament to the successful melding of two cultures.
