Burdett Trophy Golf today in Nuwara Eliya
One of the Worlds oldest Golf competitions, the annual Burdett Trophy, between the Royal Colombo Golf Club ( RCGC) and the Nuwara Eliya Golf Club (NEGC) since 1902, will be played today at the Nuwara Eliya Golf links. This is a one-day affair. The 114th Burdett Trophy for Men and the 80th Puffin Cup for Ladies will be played on the same day. The Burdett Trophy for Men, has been played throughout the last 100 years, except during the two Great wars (1914-1918 and 1939-1945) and due to adverse weather conditions. The tally so far is RCGC 60 wins and NEGC 36. The Puffin Cup for Ladies began in 1936. Alongside these two tournaments, will be the Masters Golf tournament and 125th Anniversary competitions.
The NEGC team will be led by Maj.Gen. Srinath Rajapakse and while the RCGC team will be led by Primal Wijayanayake. Rohina Macan Marker will lead the NEGC ladies team while Radha Sundarampillai will lead the RCGC. The 125th Anniversary tournament Captains are Firaz Hameed and Priyath Fernando for NEGC and RCGC respectively. Christopher Dias of NEGC and Shiran Dias of RCGC are the respective Captains for the Masters tournament. A total of 120 Golfers will tee off for their respective teams. The Burdett teams comprise 12 players each, who will play 4 foursome matches and 8 singles on the par 71 course which extends over 6,075 yards of challenging fairways. The Puffin Cup is played as 4 foursome matches and 4 single matches.
The teams will be announced at the evening function on the day before the tournament, and the draw will be conducted on the following morning at the 1st tee by the respective Captains, when they exchange the team cards. Principal sponsor of the major tournament is Dialog. The Group Chief Officer- Enterprise Business at Dialog, Jeremy Huxtable said, “Golf is a sport that brings people together. And hopefully, in the next couple of years Dialog will be able to support the development programmes in the country. With 21 million people, Sri Lanka has a fantastic Cricket team. There is no reason why you can’t have 3 or 4 very successful Golfers”.