The Sri Lanka Golf Union, Premier Golf Tournament open to Professionals and Amateurs conducted as “ The Sri Lanka Open “ gets underway at the Ridgeways on Monday January 2, 2012 with the Qualifying round for players to join the pre-qualified Professionals and Amateurs. The ‘Open’ played over 4 Rounds on Stroke-Play Basis, starts Tuesday 3rd January with only 60 players facing the starter.
The Sri Lanka Open is the true challenge for all Golfers, as it is the only tournament where Amateurs including the National Development Squad players, Caddy Golfers who play a great game of Golf , Juniors and Amateurs who turned ‘Pro’ to play in the International Golf circuit play along side each other to bag the Champion Crown by winning the 4 Round Tournament.
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| Anura Rohana |
The ‘Ceylon Open Championship’ was first played in 1970, organized by the ‘Ceylon Golf Union’ the Governing body of Golf in Sri Lanka. The Ceylon Golf Union under dynamic leadership along with The Late Alavi Macan Markar Captain of the RCGC ensured that the inaugural ‘Open’ was a huge success with large cash prizes distributed through generous sponsorship from Mercantile Firms, in addition to a brand new set of Golf Clubs and bag given to the winner from Dunlop. The Late H.L.Premadasa (a caddy – fondly called ‘Dasa’) was the first winner and won it 3 times (1970,72,77) and was first made the Assistant professional of the Club and later became the first Ceylonese to hold the post as ‘Golf Professional’ at the Royal Colombo Golf Club. Dasa died prematurely in a tragic road accident on his motor cycle in 1980.
The Late maestro Pin Fernando won the Open twice in 1973 and 1976 and remains the only Gentleman Amateur (Full Club Member) to win the Sri Lanka Open in its rich and long history since 1970. Initially the Sri Lanka Open was played alternatively in Colombo and Nuwara-Eliya giving the home advantage to the Nuwara-Eliya ‘caddy’ Golfers as well , who gave the Colombo Golfers a run for their money. Significantly A.A.Sumathipala (Nuwara-Eliya caddy Golfer) won in 1971, the second showing of the Ceylon Open Championship. K.M.Vemboo the ‘Gentleman caddy’ from Nuwara-Eliya tagged as the best Golfer by both the British and Ceylonese before the last war, was the Green Keeper and later Professional at the NEGC, won the ‘Open’ in 1974 at the Nuwara-Eliya Golf Course in a sudden death ‘Play-Off’, the first in the history of the Championship, with the Late Pin Fernando who went down fighting in rainy cold conditions to the local hero Vemboo. P.Sigamony the present teaching Professional at the Nuwara-Eliya Golf Club won in 1979. V.Kumar is the only other lad from Nuwara-Eliya who won the Sri Lanka Open, winning in 1987 with a 4 round total of 299. The rest of the Sri Lanka Open Winners list is dominated by the Colombo ‘caddy’ Golfers with J.A.J.Perera (Ananda) winning twice in 1975 and 1980, A.A.Sunil Perera (the current RCGC Caddy Master) winning in 1978 and Beijing Asian Games Silver Medalist 1992 K.Nandasena Perera, winning an unprecedented 7 times (1981,82,83,84,85,88,92) and the Seoul Asian Games Silver Medalist 2002 R.A.Anura Rohana, the defending Champion winning 5 times in 2002,2005,2008,2009 and 2010.
The Sri Lanka Open was not played in 1986,89,90,91 and 93 to 2001 due to varying circumstances prevalent at the time. 2003 saw the most dramatic finish in recent times with R.A.Anura Rohana tied after 4 rounds on 4 Under Par with N.Amarapadma and in the second sudden death Play-Off in history Amarapadma clinched the ‘Open’ with a birdie to Anura Rohana’s Par 4 on the 1st at the RCGC. In all the history of the Ceylon Open Championship and the Sri Lanka Open Championship since the mid 80’s the defining criteria of the many Champions is the 4 round winning total where none of the winners had broken ‘Par’ over the 4 rounds, until the magic artistry of matured ‘caddy’ K.Nandasena Perera won for the 5th time in 1985 returning a 4 round total of 280, 4 under par which was bettered by himself when ‘Nande’ won for the 7th time in 1992 with an aggregate 8 under par, total of 276.
This total is the best so far and it seems more than likely that the 2011 Sri Lanka Open been played from the 3rd to 6th Januray 2012, boasts the greatest threat with a Star-studded field coming to the party to better the best 4 round total established by Nandasena. Leading the challenge is ‘Nande’s’ son Mithun Perera who is yet to win ‘the Open’ but has powered himself to the ‘Top 10’ in his rookie year in the Indian tour concluded for 2011, ahead of compatriot and defending champ of ‘The Open’ Anura Rohana who is on an unbeaten run of 3 wins (2008,2009,2010). Past winner N.Amarapadma, B.G.Lalith Kumara the other Professional in the field who has two Indian Amateur Championships among others to his credit, the current Sri Lanka Amateur Champion N.Thangaraja and the junior stars Kyle and Sachin De Silva among all the National Development Squad Players who are all waiting to prove a point ‘out-putting’ the Professionals.
The sixty players in the main Sri Lanka Open will vie for honours with a 2 round special tournament played concurrently for members of the SLGU Member Clubs comprising the RCGC, NEGC, Victoria Golf and Country Club and The Eagle Golf Links – Trincomalee (The Sri Lanka Air-Force Golf Facility). There will be a cut-off after 2 rounds for the main Sri Lanka Open Championship.
Come what may, 2012 will be off to a fiery, flying start ! 2011 – farewell ‘Auld Lang Syne – “For (the sake of) old times”, Welcome the Year of the Dragon ! What does the future hold ? |
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