Golf Tourney to Benefit Children’s Hospital

The fifth Ronald McDonald Children’s Foundation Golf Classic is planned for today at Club Cariari, northwest of San José, near Juan Santamaría International Airport.

The event, which is scheduled to begin at 7 a.m., is expected to draw 150 golfers from Costa Rica and abroad.

Players will compete in the tournament in teams of three with one captain per team. The competition is a “scramble,” in which the best ball from each team counts.

Prizes for winning teams include stays at Hotel Punta Islita in the northwestern province of Guanacaste, airfare to the United States, stays at Marriott hotels and tickets to sporting events in the U.S. city of Chicago, including the July 4 Cubs game and the Cialis Western Open golf tourney July 3-9. Additionally, a 2006 Land Rover Discovery will be awarded to the first hole in one.

An awards party will be held after the tournament at the Costa Rica Marriott Hotel in San Antonio de Belén, northwest of San José.

Proceeds from the tournament will go to the National Children’s Hospital to help purchase equipment for its laparoscopy wing. Laparoscopy is a minimally invasive surgical procedure in which thin, lighted tubes are inserted into small incisions in the body to make diagnoses, take tissue samples and perform surgeries such as appendix

removals.