Thangaraja helps Sri Lanka to win SAARC Golf ‘Plate’

S.M. Jiffrey ABDEEN – Kandy Sports Corr.

GOLF: The individual brilliance of N. Thangaraja of Royal Colombo golf club helped Sri Lanka to win the ‘plate’ Championship at the 10th SAARC Golf Championship held at RAMBAGH Golf Club Course Jaipur, India. India won the Cup SAARC Championship by defeating Bangladesh in the final by the narrow margin of one shot.

In the two qualifying rounds, Bangladesh beat Nepal with a 2 under par total of 278.

But in the other qualifying round, the defending champions Sri Lanka were distinctly unlucky to lose to India by just one stroke.

Over the two rounds, India made a total of 288 and Sri Lanka’s reply was 289.

In the ‘plate’ finals Sri Lanka beat Nepal and the highest of their win was a fine 66 with a 4 – under par by Sri Lanka’s champion golfer N. Thangaraja of Royal Colombo Golf Club. It must be recalled that N. Thangaraja who took to golf around five years ago, won the 12th Sri Lanka Open Amateur Golf Championship 2011.

A month earlier at the Asian Golf Championship held in Singapore, he was placed overall 36th in Asia but had the satisfaction of defeating all the golfers in the South Asian region.