54th Royal-Thomian Golf – ‘Together, We Flourish’ with charity in mind
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Captains of the two sides – Kamal Weerapperuma (left) of S. Thomas’ and Hemasiri Subasinghe (right) of Royal
Friendly rivalry on lush green tapestry will be on show again when the veteran golfers of both Royal College and S. Thomas’ College will tee off at the 54th Royal-Thomian Golf encounter at the Royal Colombo Golf Course today. The annual golf encounter contested for the Fred de Saram Challenge Trophy is scheduled to be held at the Royal Colombo Golf Club, with this year’s event expecting well over 100 old boy participants.
The tournament is focused on old boys of the two colleges, 21 years of age and above, holding a handicap from a recognised golf club. A conventional 4-ball competition with a three and four handicap system would be used as the format. Royal will be captained by Hemasiri Subasinghe and the Thomians will be led by Kamal Weerapperuma and the Charity Project will have Naveen Samarasekara as Chairman.
As recorded history has it, the very first competition between the old boy’s golfers of the two schools was held in 1970. In line with this, the Fred de Saram Challenge Cup was donated to the Royal Colombo Golf Club. This was in his memory and the cup to be awarded to the winning team of the two schools.
Thus, the 54th competition between the old boys of the two schools which is scheduled for today, as tradition has it, will no doubt bring about much camaraderie and togetherness amongst the golfers of the two schools. Let us hence compete in the true spirit of the Royal Thomian Golfers Guild motto – ‘Together We Flourish’.
Besides the fun and frolic at the Ridgeways Green, both old boys do this annual event for a genuine cause; it is exchange of play golf for charity fund. In 2023, an important milestone was achieved in respect of the competition held on March 5. The RTGG was partnered by Moreton Cricket Brisbane, Australia to raise substantial funds that exceeded Rs.4 million. These funds were donated to the College of Anaesthesiologists and Intensivists of Sri Lanka in support of their Project ‘Heal Sri Lanka’. This endeavuor directly facilitated the urgent requirements of all island ICU’s and Emergency Surgical Units.
This year, RTGG will once again partner with Moreton Cricket to raise funds in line with the same theme. In fact, Moreton has scheduled a special fund raiser evening in Brisbane on February 3, which will be attended by a group of old Royalists and Thomians. The funds raised on a joint initiative of Moreton and RTGG will be donated to Suwa Arana Palliative Care Facility in Maharagama at a special ceremony scheduled for March 30.