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| Sunday, 20 June 2004 |
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RCGC celebrates historic 125th year on grand scale by Lal Gunesekera Celebrating 125 years of any institution is a historic occasion. The Royal Colombo Golf Club (RCGC) celebrates its 125 years for one week (August 15 to 21) on a grand scale with the assistance of SriLankan Airlines and Dialog GSM, who are sponsoring four tournaments between them on the Ridgeways as well as a grand banquet at the Colombo Hilton on the final day. The RCGC is the 16th oldest "Royal" club in the world and the second oldest in Asia, apart from the Royal Calcutta Golf Club, which was formed 175 years ago. The Royal Hong Kong Golf Club, for long the third oldest Royal Club in the Asia, lost its 'Royal' charter status when ownership of this British Colony passed on to the People's Republic of China in 1997. The RCGC have invited Captains and representatives of over 60 Royal Golf Clubs round the world to participate in their 125th anniversary, but only personalities from about 24 countries are to arrive. The opening ceremony is on August 15 at 6 p.m. and promises to be a pageant worthy of royalty. A Masters tournament for those over 55 years have been slotted for August 17 at 7 a.m. with Stableford tournament in three divisions scheduled for August 18 also to be teed off at 7 a.m. The women and juniors too, have not been excluded from RCGC's anniversary programme, with a tournament for them on August 19. The main 125th Year Anniversary Trophy tournament will be 'teed off' on August 20 and continued on August 21, followed by the lavish banquet at the Colombo Hilton. The President of the RCGC, Tita Nathanielsz, gave a brief history of the club and thanked both SriLankan Airlines and Dialog GSM in coming forward readily to sponsor this historic moment. The SriLankan Airlines are also giving away a return air ticket to London to the winner of the main tournament on August 20 and 21 apart from the 125th Year Anniversary Trophy and sponsoring the banquet too. The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of SriLankan Airlines, Peter Hill, said that his establishment was very happy to be associated in this historic occasion of the RCGC, and disclosed that some of the competitors in the main event will be from UK, Ireland, India, Pakistan and Hong Kong. However 200 players are expected to tee-off in this two-day tournament which will culminate with the banquet for 500 people at the Colombo Hilton hosted by SriLankan Airlines. Dialog GSM's Nishantha Wickremaratne said that his firm too was happy to be associated with the RCGC and will sponsor the Masters and Stableford tournaments as well as the Ladies and Juniors events too. Dialog GSM has been sponsoring sports in Sri Lanka for several years which includes school cricket, athletics, rugby, soccer, disabled sports, rowing and motor racing and have also sponsored national contingents to the Olympics Commonwealth Games, Paraolympics, Asian Games, Asian Athletic Championships and SAF Games. Among the others who were present at a media briefing last Tuesday night at the RCGC were: Kumar Boralessa (Captain of RCGC), Elmo de Silva (Deputy President of RCGC), Chandana de Silva and Ms Deshini Abywardene (Both of SriLankan Airlines) and Zarina Rahim (Dialog GSM). |
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