Samarawickrema elected President of Royal Colombo

The Annual General Meeting of the Royal Colombo was one big helluva fiasco. The President, the Captain and the General Manager made repeated attempts to clip the unruly behaviour of the Bar at the far end of the hall, without any degree of success – the irritating disturbance went on annoyingly.

The operating deficit of approximately Rs.11million was staggering and little was done to explain the cause for such a financial disaster. After the accounts were put aside, the contest for the Captain and Vice Captain took centre stage. Little time and thought had been given to the voting pattern which caused chaos, delays and annoyance. The organiser went short of voting coupons and in some coupons wrong names were printed. It would have been pretty simple if the voting coupons were given to each member at the time he registered his attendance. Ron Bakelman beat Priya Fernando by 36 votes with 212 voting against Bakelman. Tissa Jayasinghe beat Nimal Piyaratne by 82 to take the posts of Captain and Vice Captain respectively. The establishment received a massive jolt, but eventually stood firm. A strong opposition will emerge from these results and it’s every member's hope that sanity will prevail for the good of Royal Colombo. The silver lining as I see it bright and clear is that Lalin Samarawickrema will sit as President at all meetings with Bakelman and Tissa Jayasinghe coming in as Captain and Vice Captain.

I personally did not vote for Bakelman, but if I identify a genuine and spirited effort by him to recapture the lost pristine glory of the Royal Colombo, he will have my unstinted support and I am sure many will join. His ‘thank you’ message at the end of the day was quite encouraging and many will look forward to his fulfilling those promises.

Bakelman has a mighty mess on his plate that has been piling up in the last two years – indiscipline, goons in action, rampant vandalising, thieving and a massive operational loss. I feel strongly that the entire membership should stand together and help Bakelman to get the Royal Colombo out of the sticks.A redeeming feature that cannot go unnoticed is the entry of Sanjeeva Wickramanayake into the messy scene if indiscipline on the Course. He has been extremely successful in making firm and tough decisions. The Course is now free of football matches, intruders now avoid the Course, the fairways are responding to his touch and the greens are thriving on his nursing. Sanjeeva has done a majestic job.As a gesture of goodwill and support for Bakelman and his Committee, Priya Fernando has consented to join the Committee. This is great news and shows that Bakelman can count on support even from those who opposed him.

Samarawickrema, Bakelman and Jayasinghe are a formidable trio and with the smart choice of members in the Committee, this will be their last chance to eliminate the ills that have befallen the Royal Colombo. If they fail this year, I am positive nothing good will rise in the future and it will mark the beginning of the end of the Mecca of Golf.