Keen tussles in store at Victoria Club Championships

by S. M. Jiffrey ABDEEN - Kandy Sports Corr.

GOLF: Over fifty golfers have so far entered the Club Championship for 2009 organised by Victoria Golf and Country Resort and partly sponsored by the Club and Pericyle which will be worked off at the beautiful Victoria golf course at Rajawella of Kandy on September 4th and 5th (Friday and Saturday).

This championship will be played over two rounds and will be for Nett and Gross for ladies and gentlemen.

Some of the top golfers from Victoria who are expected to excel are Ian Tait, Sujeewa Lankatillake, Sirath Kasthuriratne, Sam Gunaratne, Ravi Mediwake, Rolf Tibblins, Tony Witham, Richard Witham, Sunil Jayakoddy, Errol Johnston, Mangala Niyarapola, Sidath Hemachandra, Desmond Haynes, just to name a few.

Among the ladies it will be a tough battle between Sonia Boyle, Jyoti Haynes, Maneri Jayakoddy, Pauline Morley, Indira Tibblins, Joanna Moore, Lillian Perera, Linda Harris, who have all excelled at Victoria.

This Club championship is a major golf championship organised by Victoria and has been a big attraction for its members since the golf course was opened in 1998. Since then it has made giant strides and has brought honour to the country by being voted as the Best Golf Course in the Sub-Continent in its ten year old history. It is also ranked among the 100 most beautiful golf courses in the world which is indeed a great achievement.

All this was possible due to the hard work put in by former Thomian sportsman Tony Witham to whom the credit of planting the first tuft of grass on a once coconut plantation should. Tony Witham a seasoned planter was domiciled in Melbourne, Australia when he was persuaded to return to Sri Lanka by his former boss late Mr. Mark Bostock who was the Chairman of this Victoria Golf as it was then known.

The course itself was designed by the world famous golf architect Donald Steel who saw to it that the nature was retained while making the greens challenging as ever to attract golfers from world over. The course itself meanders through tree lined fairways - mostly coconut and mara trees. Each hole offers a different challenge as well as its unique charm. The sixth hole is the most spectacular with its tee set 100 feet above the fairway.

The commanding breath-taking views from the top ever the course and the waters of the Victoria reservoir below and the golfers will depend on drive combined with distance, accuracy and nerves of steel to come to terms with it. No golf course in the country has a hole which is 100 feet above the fairway which itself makes Victoria unique. It is no wonder that this is recognised as the toughest par 4 in the country. In addition to this, there are three holes which over 500 yards long and here again mighty swipes and accuracy are required.

This golf course built to international standards has recently added a new facility when the new 'Araliya' state of art the restaurant was opened.