Golf: Nuwara Eliya wins Puffin Cup

The RCGC was host to one of the most prestigious golf tournaments in Sri Lanka last Saturday, November 28. 

Since 1936, The Puffin Cup, established by Puffin Lushington has been played along the same lines as the Burdette Cup, which was introduced by Sir Francis Burdette in 1902.

This annual tournament has always held a special place in the golf calendar, and has been pivotal in bringing the up-country players from Nuwara Eliya to compete against their rivals from Colombo. 

A tradition of healthy competition and camaraderie between the Lady golfers of the Nuwara Eliya Golf Club and the Royal Colombo Golf Club resulted in Nuwara Eliya emerging as the 2015 winners and taking the Puffin Cup back to its rightful home.

The NEGC side was captained by Michele Mirchandani with Jacquie Diaz (co Captain), RohinaJohnston, Kumari Herath, Niloo Jayatilake, Jane Hong, Manori Jayakody, Ahalya Rajan, Ruvani Desinghe, Fran De Mel, Janaki Sugathapala and Kayla Perera.

RCGC side captained by Neesha Nirmalalingam with a team consisting of Elizabeth Tenduf-La, Kathy Twerenbold,Shamara Wettimuny, Louise Parsons, Irene Scarth, Gudrun Stargen, Song Ting Lou, Sashi Jayatunga, Sumudu Designhe, Sharon Hall and Orianna Mathew.

The morning doubles matches finished strongly in favour of the host club with the RCGC having 2 1/2 wins and NEGC 1 1/2 wins. 

Irene and Sharon comfortably beat their opponents 6/5, Songting and Sashi finished 1 up against their opponents with Gudren and Elizabeth taking their opponents to a nail biting finish with Gudren game changing putts on the 17th and 18th to halve their match on the 18th.

The afternoon singles matches turned the game around with some excellent golf by the NEGC team who started out under pressure. 

Niloo beat Neesha 3/2, Kayla Perera the upcoming junior golfer comfortably beat Louise Parsons 5/4 and Jacquie beating Sumudu. Kathy Twerenbold in a great match held it together for the RCGC beating her opponent 2/1.

The start of the day saw the foursomes going out in the morning, with Nuwara Eliya winning only 1 1/2 of its matches to Royal Colombo's 2 match points.

This put pressure on the afternoon singles matches, which resulted in 3 wins for Nuwara Eliya and one for Colombo. 

The teams were captained by Neesha Nirmalalingam for the RCGC and Michele Mirchandani for the NEGC fielding a team of 12 players each side.

The final result was NEGC 4 1/2 points to Colombo 3 1/2.