Sri Lanka Amateur Golf Championship from August 19

by S.M. Jiffrey Abdeen - Kandy Sports Cor.

The second oldest Amateur Golf Championship in the world - the 126th Sri Lanka Amateur Golf Championship organised by the Sri Lanka Golf Union (SLGU) will be worked off from Monday August 19 to 25 at the beautiful Victoria Golf course at Rajawella off Kandy.

This was disclosed to this writer by the President of the Sri Lanka Golf Union and former cricket boss Ana Punchihewa, in a briefing yesterday.

Sri Lanka could be proud of this championship as it is the second oldest in the world ahead of big nations like America, India, Pakistan, Thailand, France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Middle East, Malaysia just to name a few. The oldest Amateur Golf championship is the British Amateur Golf Championship said Ana Punchihewa who has visions of making Sri Lanka a golfing nation of Exellent by the year 2200.

The defending Amateur champion is Sri Lanka's Nadaraja Thangaraja who has won it for the last two years and could perform the hat-trick of wins, if he still an amateur.

The itinerary of the golf championship is as follows:

On Monday August 19 the teams will have the second round of the practices in the morning for them to familiar with the golf course conditions.

At 3 pm there will be a meeting of the captains followed by the flag hoisting ceremony at 4 pm. There will be a press conference at 5 pm followed by a cocktail party hosted by the Nuwara Eliya Golf Club.

On Tuesday 20 August the qualifying round 1 (Stroke play) for championship, F.B. De Mel Challenge Cup, International Team event and other events (Leonard Peiris Cup/ Firestone Jepson Cup/ Lilamani Weeraratne Trophy/ Pin Fernando Trophy) morning play.

On Wednesday August 21 the qualifying round two of the above tournaments will be worked off in the mornings.

On Thursday August 22 the quarter finals of the tournaments will be worked off and the semi finals on Friday August 23.