Foreign players make Golf Nationals interesting

By Lal Gunesekera

GOLF: The second oldest amateur championship in the world, the 120th Sri Lanka Amateur Open Championships conducted by the Sri Lanka Golf Union (SLGU) tees off today (Sunday) on the Ridgeways of the Royal Colombo Golf Club (RCGC). The participation of top amateurs from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Philippines and Sri Lanka makes the tourney guide interesting. It will be four rounds of stroke-play.

The President of the SLGU, 'NUG' Silva, told the Sunday Observer that players with a handicap of 12 and below are eligible to compete with the golfer with the best aggregate gross score declared the champion. All competitors from overseas were expected to arrive in the country yesterday (Saturday), while Sri Lanka will be represented by Mithun Perera, K. Prabagaran who won the All-India title earlier this year and veteran Tissa Chandradasa.

Today (Sunday) the events will be for the Dudley Senanayake Trophy (Team nett score), Levers Shield (Team gross score), Levers Cup (individual gross score) and RCGC Cup.

The first-round of the main Championship starts on Tuesday (November 13) along with the first day of the Team Championship, Seniors Championship, Victoria Cup (individual gross score) and Illankoon Trophy (individual nett score).

The second-round of the main championship and the second day of the Team Championships will be on Wednesday together with the Pin Fernando Trophy (individual gross score), SLGU Trophy (Individual nett score) and General Zia-UL-Haq Trophy (Sri Lanka vs Pakistan).

The first and second rounds of the main Championships will be played concurrently with the International Team events, while the third and final rounds of the main Championship will be worked off on Thursday and Friday.

The 120th Sri Lanka Ladies Amateur Open Championships will start off with the 36-Holes medal rounds with the match-play being from Monday to Thursday.

Sri Lanka win

Sri Lanka represented by K. Prabagaran, Mithun Perera and Tissa Chandradasa beat Nepal in the final to win the 9th South Asian Association of Regional Co-operation (SAARC) Golf Team Championship in Kathmandu, Nepal earlier this month. The other countries who competed were India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Bhutan.

Mithun Perera was adjudged the winner of the best gross score with a 4 under par.

This was the first occasion that Sri Lanka won the SAARC title and President of the SLGU, "NUG" Silva said that the trio Played excellent golf at the Gokarna Forest Golf Resort which is a hilly course quite similar to the Nuwara-Eliya course.

The Sri Lanka women's team comprising Niloo Jayatilleke and Dhanushi Senadhira were runners-up to India.

Niloo - Pakistan champ

Niloo Jayatilleke (79,82,88) won the 47th Pakistan National Amateur Championships in Lahore recently with Dhanushi Senadhira as the runner-up (86,85,87).

Sri Lanka's men (Prabagaran, Mithun Perera and Tissa Chandradasa) won the Men's International Team event beating Pakistan, while the other players were from Bangladesh, Iran and India.

The men's title was won by Shahid Khan of Bangladesh.