Golf: Vinod Weerasinghe wins triple at RCGC Meet

Young star Vinod Weerasinghe starting the traditional South West Monsoon Meet annual event at the Royal Colombo Golf Club (RCGC), playing off a “one” handicap, carried away three Major Trophies played over two consecutive weekends. 

Vinod won the Victoria Cup for the best aggregate net score of the 1st and 3rd rounds, the Squadron Cup for the best aggregate nett score of 279, over four rounds, four strokes clear of the runner-up Nishan Fernando. 

Vinod completed the triple victory of trophies winning the Aggregate Gold Medal for the four round best Gross Score with a total of 282 (2 under par Gross) 32 strokes clear of the Runner-up Chanaka Perera. 

Vinod Weerasinghe followed the triumphant victory of Sachin De Silva who annexed all four Trophies in 2017, but missed this years’ South West Monsoon Meet due to another feature Golfing event held in Nuwara Eliya during the first two rounds of the tournament.

It was a pity that Sachin couldn’t defend his clean sweep of wins due to clashing of invaluable golf events in the members golfing calendar. 

Nonetheless, nothing can be taken away from Vinod’s excellent performance of being two under par gross over four rounds and now come down to Scratch Handicap after three rounds of the prestigious meet. 

Vinod joins a small band of Amateur Golfers in Sri Lanka, playing off a ‘zero’ handicap and his consistency and progress as a golfer is the evidence of his achievement so far. 

JanakaTebuwana annexed the Calcutta Medal for the best Nett Score in the 1st Round with a Nett 67 adjudged winner on a count back from the Runner-up Nihal Perera who also had a 69. 

The South West Monsoon Meet four rounds is part of the 25 rounds counted for the RCGC Grand-Prix Rankings annually, which provides stiff competition to become the top 10 ranked players at the RCGC in the Gross and Nett format respectively. 

Results 

CALCUTTA MEDAL
Winner: W. Jankaka Tebuwana 67 (count back) 
Runner-up: Nihal Perera 67 

VICTORIA CUP 
Winner: Vinod Weerasinghe - 136 (67, 69) 
Runner-up: Prof. Deepal Weerasekera - 138 (71, 67) 

SQUADRON CUP 
Winner: Vinod Weerasinghe - 279 (67, 73, 69, 70) 
Runner-up: Prof. Deepal Weerasekera – 282 (71, 70, 67, 74) 

AGGREGATE GOLD MEDAL 
Winner: Vinod Weerasinghe - 282 (68, 74, 70, 70) 
Runner-up: Chanaka Perera – 314 (83, 74, 79, 78)