The North-East Monsoon Meet annually conducted by the Royal Colombo Golf Club attracted over 200 entries. The first two rounds of the Centenary Trophy which is over 4 rounds spread through two weekends is hotly contested. However there is only one player prominently ahead of the pack.
Young Sachin De Silva in his early ‘teens’ has already bagged the Annual Gold Medal for the Best Gross Score in the first round with a 3 over Par 74, four strokes clear of the next best Gross Score card handed in by seasoned Golfer David Evans who corded a 78 to be the Runner-Up. Sachin also leads the Clifford Cup played on accumulation of the 1st and 3rd rounds of the North-East Meet with a 69 Nett, holding a slender lead of 1 shot from A.V. Rajendra and A. Sahabdeen who are jointly second on 70 Nett.
The highlight of North-East Monsoon Meet is the Centenary Trophy of the RCGC which is played over 4 rounds for the best Nett Aggregate Score. The Centenary Trophy was introduced in 1979 in recognition of 100 years of existence of the Royal Colombo Golf Club.
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| Mithun Perera in India |
It is 32 years since the Centenary Trophy was first played and it is arguably one of the best 4 round Nett Aggregate Tournaments at the RCGC, with a large field of players, particularly over two Saturdays and Sundays in the challenging weather conditions where unexpected, irregular showers of rain become part of the difficulty in playing and scoring low !
Unlike in Cricket, no Golf Tournament can stop due to rain unless there is thunder and lightning which is a definite threat to the safety of the Players as the ‘shaft’ of the Golf club is of steel! The only other circumstance to call off a Golf Tournament is due to ‘heavy rain’ and if there is ‘flooding’ on the Green, so as to cover and deprive visibility of the Hole on the Green.
The Centenary Trophy is a reminder of the rich history of the Royal Colombo Golf Club. When the Royal Charter was given to the ‘Colombo Golf Club’ in 1879 under the British Empire which was far flung for a full 40 years, specifically on 13th March 1879, Queen Victoria was occupying the Throne as Queen.
An unbroken century of existence having been achieved, the milestone was appropriately commemorated with the Best Amateur Golfer Sri Lanka had ever seen up to 1979 the Late Pin Fernando winner of the Sri Lanka Amateur Golf Championship an unprecedented 10 times was the President for the Centenary Year.
The RCGC Committee for the Centenary year was also a special selection and recognition of members who made varying contribution to the game, club and its history of 100 years at the RCGC. Many of them have gone beyond but there are a few more outstanding stalwarts who are still on the ‘Course’ at the RCGC. The high profile Royal Colombo Golf Club Centenary Year 1979 committee was as follows:
President – W. Pin Fernando, Captain – C.P.G.(Chrisso) Abeyewardene, Vice Captain – Maithri Samarasinghe, Hony Ground Secretary – Dr. C. Thuriarajah, Hony Treasurer – Nuski Mohamed, Committee Members – Ben Abeyewardene, Willie Barsenbach, Mark C. Bostock, Sohli Captain, Neil Chanmugam, Prof. H.V.J.(Bundy)Fernando, Dr. Dougie Flamer-Cladera, George Gomes, O. Ikari and Abid Moosajee. Reflecting on some of the names and going down memory lane brings a sense of nostalgia reminiscing the history of golf and the historic environment which followed independence in 1948 and the establishing of ‘Ceylonese’ in the game, Club and seat of the British.
The Centenary Trophy in its 32nd year appears to welcome the new Amateur budding Star Sachin De Silva as the best future prospect for Sri Lankan Golf, as he has taken a seemingly unassailable lead of 6 strokes at the half-way mark.
The results so far: Annual Gold Medal – Winner - Sachin De Silva- 74 Gross, Runner-Up - David Evans – 78 Gross (on better back nine beating RCGC Captain Sanjeeva Vairawanathan), Clifford Cup – Leader board after 1st Round
Nett 69 – Sachin De Silva, Nett 70 – A.V. Rajendra, A. Sahabdeen Centenary Trophy – 4 Round Aggregate Nett Score
Leader board after 2 Rounds -- 138- Sachin De Silva, 144-A.V.Rajendra,146-Asslli Rahim
The ‘Ridgeways’ at the Royal Colombo will be buzzing this weekend as the North-East Monsoon Meet Centenary Trophy comes to a finish.
On the Professional scene Mithun Perera fresh from his considerable success in Singapore took flight along with R.A. Anura Rohana to participate in the ‘Tata Open’ played in Calcutta, Jamshedpur which is part of the Indian Professional Golf Tour. News reaching Colombo confirmed that Mithun was 3 under-par after the 1st round 3 strokes behind the leader while Anura Rohana was 2 over-par.
More results and news next week – let us keep our fingers crossed for our ‘Sri Lankans!’ |
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