Sports

The Ridgeways of the Royal Colombo Golf Club will move into historical records when the grandiose plans of the Captain, Ajantha Mylvaganam, get off the ground and takes effect in the not too distant future.

At the last Annual General meeting of the Club, Mylvaganam in his speech, related to the membership in attendance his planned scheme to – over a period of time – have the entire course floodlit. Beginning with six holes and then stretching to nine and the complete course, his laudable presentation was well applauded. He said he had been to China, seen a floodlit course, learnt all the mechanisms and made contact with the combine responsible for the installation.

It all looked good and promising, and he was now examining the prospects of getting the plan off the ground. Nine holes of golf after sunset would be a super engagement for the busy businessmen and many will probably look forward to some relaxed exercise after twilight. Here I must warn the authorities that not so long ago the Club, in an effort to collect funds for the better upkeep and development of the course, decided to levy a fee of Rs.50/- for every round of 18 holes. There were howls of protests and eventually the Committee suffered the embarrassment of withdrawing the scheme. The use of a floodlit course will cost an arm and a leg. Big thoughts are great, if they can work effectively.

This plan reminds me of what was promised 2 years ago at the Annual General Meeting by Elmo de Silva. He referred to the property on the left of the 15th fairway. Encroachers and squatters were showing interest in that property, so very wisely De Silva told the membership that he planned a floodlit driving range and a swimming pool. He displayed flip charts, drawings and sketches and promised quick attention to his development plan. A year passed and every plan was still on paper, and at the end of the 2nd year it was discovered that cold storage had taken over the whole plan and many promises had frozen to death at birth. We now have to learn to live with promises that turn false. Priorities are often ill conceived – if only the authorities turn their attention towards the good of golf, all will be well in this small golfing world of ours.

Akram Cassim the buoyant Chief Executive of Colombo Jewellery Stores was quite disappointed and so were a double century of participants, that the unkind downfall of torrential rain put paid to the progress of an extravagant competition sponsored by Tag Heuer, the world renowned timekeeper. It is hoped that the competition will re-start this week.