Lexmark sponsors Golf at Royal Colombo

Sanjeeva Wickramanayake is the absolute maestro of Lexmark. His interest in golf is enormous and he happily sponsored a tremendous event at the Ridgeways of the Royal Colombo.

“A” Division Classic
Here Binupa Wijesinghe had the best nett score of 67 but got disqualified for playing off a wrong handicap giving Mithun Perera the lead with a nett 69. Mithun the brilliant best in the country playing off plus 3 picked 72 nett and the “A” Classic. Stewart Ritchie who was lying 4th with gross 76 nett 74 rose to 2nd position as Avinesh Nareshkumar who was immediately behind Mithun Perera was disqualified. Young Zen Dharmaratne and Zhuang Lizhou were impressive with nett 74 each. Sarath Wickremaratne messed around so badly that he tore his card up in absolute disgust.

“B” Division
Greg Ritchie from the Heather Ritchie clinic struck an excellent nett 70 to tie with Pinacle Nimal Perera and be judged the winner with a better rear nine. Perera was quick to congratulate young Ritchie. Perera tied again with S.M. Bang and Avanka Herath with the lowest score of 82. There were 19 raising hell in the century class with Lalinda Dharmaratne, Joseph Kenny and Nimal Boralessa to name a few looking great despite the distress. L. Dias Desinghe, P.B. Blackstonehouse and Ron Bakelmumn moved their cards into a shredder.

“C” Division
Arjun Goonaratne carried his tender handicap of 24 to capital advantage when he struck and excellent nett 67. He was over the moon all afternoon beaming with delight with a medal wrapped round his neck. Dilip Kumar another pleasant raw rookie on handicap 28 came happily behind with nett 68 and rushed to the 19th for extended happiness. Gihan Wickramasinghe on 89 had the lowest gross score in this division.

Absolute disaster
Unbeliveable 50 struck disastrous centuries with Ashan Abeysundera on a hefty 126

Masters
Dayananda Hewawasam appeared to be pleased with the whole universe after his performance in the Masters. He cracked nett 70 and moved into the ‘Guv’ nors” to make a tremendous 19th hole Young Christopher Dias often corners me to relate details of the occasional pars he collects. He is mad enthusiastic and immensely pleasing to listen to and I am looking forward to his shot by shot after his one over par nett 72.

Seniors
L.S.Jung sprung an interesting nett 70 to beat Ranjit Thamber by one stroke.

Gymkhana events
S.M. Bang was closest to the pin on the 9th with an almost hole-in-one tee shot. Jit Wanigasekera was magical with a score of 12 over the par 3 holes. He was keen to relate his success but failed to collect an audience. The 6 hidden holes meant nothing to Ranjit Jayawardena. He picked them and beat them to collect resounding applause for a great achievement.

The course
Several greens have turned ugly. Sanjeewa Wickremanayake is alert and his present plans are to relay them one by one. A gigantic task which I am sure he will handle with skill.POOLISTS
Through the courtesy of Sanjeeva Wickremanayake the Caddies were invited to participate in a separate event. M. Arumugam and J.J. Kumar struck one under par gross 70 each and that shows how good they can be even though neglected.