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| Sunday, 5 October 2003 |
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Anura Rohana leads strong Sri Lanka challenge at Pakistan Open by LAL GUNESEKERA Lalith Kumara leads a strong Sri Lankan challenge at the Pakistan Amateur Open Golf Championship scheduled to be worked off at Islamabad from October 9 to 12. The four-member Sri Lanka team leaves for Pakistan today (Sunday). Lalith Kumara was the runner-up at Rawalpindi when Sri Lanka last played at the Pakistan Amateur Championship which was won by Anura Rohana, who has now turned professional. Kumara is joined by Amarapathma who won the Sri Lanka Open title on the Ridgeways last week and two others who will be representing Sri Lanka for the first occasion. They are Indika and J. Kumar. The four players underwent an acclimatisation cum training programme at the Victoria Golf Club in Kandy under the watchful eyes of Sri Lanka's first professional women's golfer Tiru Jesudasan (nee Fernando) and Dinuka Boralessa who has returned from the USA together with Dian Abeywardene, who has been appointed as the manager. Sri Lanka Golf Union (SLGU) are also scheduled to send 'a few' top juniors for the All-India Junior Amateur Open Championship in November-December, but the exact venue is not yet known. The Sri Lanka Amateur Open Championship is to be staged this year at the Nuwara-Eliya Golf Club (NEGC) Course from November 22 to 29 and will be worked off for the first time on stroke-play. Countries in the Asian-Pacific region including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Qatar, Bahrain, UAE, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Singapore and UK have been invited to send players. Meanwhile, the much looked forward to 'one-leg' of the Indian Pre-Circuit to be staged in Sri Lanka has now been moved to September next year (2004). Earlier, it was scheduled to take off at the RCGC in September this year (2003) and again re-scheduled for February next year (2004). Over 50 top professionals from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Malaysia and Sri Lanka are expected to compete with the SLGU needing at least Rs. 6 to 7 million to stage this event where the total prize money itself is about Rs. 2 1/2 million. Rohana continues Anura Rohana who just completed the Indian Hero Honda Golf Tour quite successfully, is now scheduled to compete in the Hero Honda Masters which is a US Dollars 300,000 event from November 6 to 9, Volvo China Open at Shanghai which is a US Dollars 500,000 event from November 13 to 16, Acer Taiwan Open which is a US Dollars 300,000 event from November 20 to 23 and the Omega Hong Kong Open which is a US Dollars 700,000 event from December 4 to 7. Rohana finished ninth at both the Hero Honda Open and Kashmir Open of the Indian Tour, whilst finishing 42nd at the Myanmar Open and 14th at the Royal Challenge Indian Open. |
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