Sachin de Silva - a budding `wonder boy' of golf

A. C. de Silva

GOLF: Sachin de Silva is 12 plus and when he celebrates his thirteenth birthday on the first day next month, he has a bagful of achievements to show one and all of what he has done on the fairways of the golf courses here in Sri Lanka. The question may prop up as to who this young player is and about his background etc?

Well, Sachin de Silva is still very young and for such a young boy to excel in golf speaks volumes about the background from where he came up into the competive world of golf. Sachin comes from a real sporting family. He is a student of The British School in Colombo and is a 3rd generation golfer of the De Silva family at the Royal Colombo Golf Club.

He is the son of Anel and Usha de Silva. It is no surprise for young Sachin to have the sporting blood in him as sport has been in the family from the good old days of his grandmother. Some people may not know who the grandmother is. But when the good old lady is that ever popular sport conscious Derna Beling - the second runner-up of Sports Queen of Ceylon (as we were then known) in 1959 and not only that - Derna Beling was also picked as the Netball Queen in 1962.

It is not at all a surprise that Sachin would hit the top very soon.

But before Sachin came to the picture, his father Anel and mother Usha de Silva had caught the eye of the sporting public of Sri Lanka. Father Anel and uncle Shriyan (better known as S. A. and S. J.) had played cricket for Royal College and had figured in the prestigious Royal - Thomian cricket encounter. Anel opened batting and bowling and uncle S. J. captained Royal.

Mamma Usha represented Sri Lanka in netball along with her twin sister Anusha. Both sisters were good golfers as well.

With such a sporting background, it was no surprise that Sachin would take to sport and golf to be precise in a big way. He began his golf at the early age of 5 under the legendary maestro Nandasena Perera and little Sachin also had done training at the age of 7 at Nike golf camp in Los Angeles and at age 9 he was at David Lead Better School of Golf, Singapore.

No stopping

Once he came into the golf scene, there was no stopping Sachin. In 2006 at the age of 10 years, he obtained a gentleman's handicap of 28 from the Royal Colombo Golf Club.

However a few years earlier, that's in 2003, he participated in the Ole Apple Junior Grand Prix Tournament conducted by the junior section of the RCGC.

2004: * Won the Novices and Junior Tournament in the 11 years and under age category.

2005: * Winner of Milo Junior Open Stableford competition (10 and under category) at Victoria Golf Club, Kandy.

* Won the Junior Stroke Play competition (10 and under category) at Nuwara Eliya Golf Club.

* Won Mett Division of Milo Sri Lanka Junior Open Championship (11 to 15 years age category) held at Royal Colombo Golf Club.

2006: Won Bornze Division (11 and under category) of Milo Junior Open Tournament at Victoria Golf Club, Kandy.

2007: (April): Reduced handicap to 18. (August): Won Silver Division of Victoria Junior Open (11 and under category.

2009: (January): Playing off handicap 13.

Won President's Cup presented by Ferrin Careem.

(March): Playing handicap 12.

Won the Captains Cup presented by Tizsa Jayasinghe.

So, from the results so far obtained, there is no question about the capabilities of young Sachin de Silva. He has created history at the 130 year-old Royal Colombo golf club in becoming the youngest golfer to win the prestigious President's and Captain's Cup back to back at the tender age of 12 years. At the moment, Sachin is playing off a handicap of 10.