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| Sunday, 16 February 2003 |
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Anura Rohana to tee off in Myanmar by LAL GUNESEKERA Sri Lanka's latest entrant into the professional golfing circuit, Anura Rohana, is scheduled to play in his first tournament in Myanmar at the end of this month. The President of the Sri Lanka Golf Union (SLGU), Shiran de Soysa, told the Sunday Observer that Sri Lanka will not be hosting the South Asian Association of Regional Co-operation (SAARC) Team and Individual Championships this year, which is now scheduled to be staged in Delhi, India in March-April. He said: "We need at least Rs. 2 to 3 million to host this event, but will host it next year (2004) as India has indicated that they will find the sponsors as they are very keen on Sri Lanka hosting the event. De Soysa further disclosed that Kumara and M. Amarapathma have been selected to represent Sri Lanka at the All-India Open Amateur Championships to be staged in Bangalore, India from February 28 to March 9. He said that Lalith Kumara is playing very well at the moment and that the other amateurs are far behind in comparison. He said that the SLGU is a bit selective in sending teams for tournaments abroad, and that it will have more tournaments in Sri Lanka itself and monitor the performances of its amateurs and have a ranking system too. The SLGU will conduct two tournaments each in Colombo, Nuwara-Eliya and at the Victoria Golf Club in Kandy for this purpose. He said: "We will pick the players with potential and insist on the clubs giving them every opportunity to play on the course." De Soysa further said that the SLGU will spend more on the juniors this year, and have identified three to four tournaments that they will be sent to compete. These include the Malaysian Junior Open Amateur Championships in June, the All-India Junior Amateur Championships in December as well as the South India Junior Amateur Championships. He further said that the Dutch professional Henk Stevens who arrived in Sri Lanka, courtesy of the Royal and Ancient (R & A) on January 26 has been very busy. He leaves for the Victoria Golf Club on February 21 and returns to Holland on March 3. He is also scheduled to meet the Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports, Johnston Fernando, together with the Council members of the SLGU and Mrs. Radha Sunderampillai on Tuesday (February 18). Stevens introduced the sport to new recruits at the RCGC and developed the "older ones", and also found time with the national pool consisting of seven amateurs, including Lalith Kumara and Mithun Perera, son of Nandasena Perera. Last Friday (February 14), Stevens had classes for those who have developed as instructors/coaches. There were four from the RCGC including Kumara, B. A. Rohana and J. Jayakumar, but the biggest setback was the language. There were also two from NEGC and one from Victoria Golf Club. De Soysa said: "The European PGA is setting up a scheme for these instructors/coaches to be supervised by a qualified professional, and instead of going to the USA or Thailand and spend a lot of money, the SLGU, will get R & A to conduct examinations for the Sri Lankans in Sri Lanka itself for them to qualify as coaches." |
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