Dr. Rohitha Silva elected as 144th Captain of Royal Colombo Golf Club

By Shamseer Jaleel

RCGC Captain Dr. Rohith De Silva

RCGC President Ranil Pathirana

 Dr. Rohitha Silva was elected as the 144th Captain of the Royal Colombo Golf Club (RCGC). Dr. Silva, is an entrepreneur and an avid golfer who took over from outgoing Captain Saneth Gamage.

Dr. Rohitha Silva leads a dynamic committee for 2023-2024 which comprises of an experienced set of professionals and sportsmen – the Vice-Captain Amrith De Soysa, who is the youngest golfer to date to win the prestigious Club Championship at the tender age of 14 years, President Ranil Pathirana, Honorary Secretary Marketing and Communications Gehan Siribaddana, Honorary Secretary Infrastructure Mihindu Chandrasoma, Treasurer Dihan Dedigama, Honorary Secretary Food and Beverages Tharanga Gunasekera, and Honorary Secretary Greens Shamal Perera. Other committee members are Mahela Jayawardena, Rajeev Pandithage and will be joined by Saneth Gamage as immediate past Captain.

Dr. Rohitha said: “As we celebrate our 144th year, I look forward to collaborating with my committee, management and all members to enhance the club’s facilities and services. Together, my ambition is to ensure that the RCGC will be a world-class destination for golfers and enthusiasts alike.”

In 2021, RCGC shared its ambition to become net zero by 2029, during what will be its sesquicentennial anniversary. With project zero, the club aims to transition to become net zero and thereby become one of the first Golf clubs in the world to achieve the transition. The project is the key focus of RCGC and its current committee, and sub committees. All members across the seven project verticals are experts who will help the club to mitigate climate risks, reduce its carbon footprint, whilst conserving its biodiversity within this unique ecosystem in which it is located.

As the only city golf course, the RCGC is a biological hotspot. In a bid to conserve the ecosystem, the club commissioned a survey of the fauna and flora of its ecosystem in partnership with the Urban Fishing Cat Conservation Project. This was further supplemented by a field research where 8 taxonomic groups were selected, such as birds, mammals, butterflies, amphibians, fish, reptiles, dragonflies, and flowering plants. The study evaluated the wetland and terrestrial ecosystem of the club, where 57% of the area of the land is used as the golf course, with 18.9% being high ground, 12.8% woodlands, 4.7% open water bodies, and 3% scrublands. The key findings were that over 288 species of fauna and 217 species of flora were identified and importantly 31 are endemic to Sri Lanka.