119th Sri Lanka Open Amateur Golf: Sidiq-Ul-Rahman in Colombo to defend title

by Lal Gunesekera

Sidiq-Ul-Rahman the Bangladeshi who won Sri Lanka's amateur title last year, will be defending his title at the Ridgeways of the Royal Colombo Golf Club (RCGC) at the 119th Sri Lanka Amateur Open Golf Championships which tees off today (Sunday).

Rahman is one of the two golfers from Bangladesh in Colombo, while India and Pakistan - the other overseas challenges, fields four amateurs each. One of India's competitors is Gagan Verma, but Sri Lanka, too has some fine players in the calibre of former champion Prabagaran from the Nuwara-Eliya Golf Club (NEGC), the experienced Tissa Chandradasa and young Mithun Perera, son of veteran K. A. Nandasena Perera.

Today, players will vie for the Dudley Senanayake Trophy, Levers Challenges Shield, Levers Cup and RCGC Cup for those with handicaps of 28and under, while the Senior Championships for those in 18 handicap and under, but 55 years of age and above, is to be worked off on Wednesday and Thursday.

The main Amateur Championships is from Wednesday to Saturday, while the two internationals for the Paralakemedi Trophy and Zia-Ul-Haq Trophy too is to be worked off.

With not a single competitor from overseas for the Sri Lanka Amateur Open Ladies Championship, the focus will be on Sri Lanka's own Jacky Dias who is in top from. However, among those who could offer some challenges to Jacky are Dhanushi Senadhira, Shyanika Fernando, two experienced players in Anouk Chitty (nee Chanmugam) and Niloo Jayatilleke (nee Fernando) with some Koreans too posing a threat.

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka's two professional - Anura Rohana and Lalith Kumara, are presently playing on the Indian Professional Golfers Association (IPGA) Tour. They are scheduled to play at the Tata Open in Calcutta from Monday to Friday. They earlier figured in the Hero Honda as well as at the Bilt Open in Delhi, but did not fare well.