Nuwara Eliya Golf Club Championship 2019 on 1 and 2 Feb.

By Shamseer Jaleel

The 85th Nuwara Eliya Golf Club (NEGC) Club Championship 2019 will take place on 1 and 2 February at their beautiful course in Nuwara Eliya. Veteran golfer Ranil Peiris will defend the title.

Tee off is at 7.30 am both days. 

The format will be two days of stroke play where the overall champion will be decided on the best gross score. Further, players will compete for the Gold Medal which is awarded for the best gross score on day 2. The gold medal is also a Board event.

The organizing committee will give away prizes including airline tickets and other valuable gifts on offer to the overall winner and runner-up in A, B and C segments. Concurrently the ladies club championship will also take place. 

In the 2018 event, Ranil Pieris got the better of Priyanga Hapugalle by 3 shots at the Club Championship and a narrow one shot lead in the Gold Medal. This year’s event has already has attracted a record number of entries with some top class golfers such as Kushal Johnpillai, Srinath Rajapakse, WAK Fernando, Sachin De Silva, Manjula Chandrasoma, Affli Raheem, and school boy sensation from the Central Hills Haroon Aslam to compete for honours at this annual event.

In the Silver Division, Chamara Abeyratne, Tyeab Akbarally, Janaka Gallangoda, Rohan De Silva and Tharanga Gunasekara are the key players to watch out for. Meanwhile, Pavithra Fernando, Nanda Hathurusinghe and Anura Wimalaratne are the leading contenders for the Segment C awards.

History of the Cup

The NEGC Championship dates back to 1933 in then Ceylon, under the British Empire was dominated by Scottish, Irish, British and Wales nationals based in Ceylon during that period who were mainly Planters. M H Lushington was the inaugural Champion, followed by W.S. Burnett in 1934 and also in 1936, 1937, and 1940. C.G. Thornton won the Championship in 1935 and 38 followed by A.R. Aitken who won in 1939 and 1941. Due to the 2nd World War, the Championship was not played between 1942 -1945. All winners of the Club Championship also won the Amateur Championship of Ceylon, proving that the best golfers were the contenders for the Club Champion status. When the Championship re-commenced in 1946, J B McLachlan won and subsequently won the Championship in 1949, 1950 and 1958. In between the Legendary Pin Fernando became the first Ceylonese to win the NEGC Championship in 1947 and of course the Late Pin became NEGC Champion on 4 other occasion in 1968, 1969, 1970 and 1973. C. Upali Senanayake was the 2nd Ceylonese to become Club Champion when he won in 1954 and again in 1961 and 1962. R.L. Illangakoon was the 3rd Ceylonese when he annexed the title in 1957 and again ten years later in 1967. M.J. Robinson (1959 and 1960), A.R.D. Trewin, a long hitting Scotsman (1971 and 1972) were the last of the British Empire who won the title and from then-on Sri Lankans dominated the Club Championship.

Sohli Captain became the first to rattle-off a hat-trick of wins becoming the Champion in 1975, 1976 and 1977. Dr. C. Thurairaja (1978, 1979, 1985), W. J. D. Barsenbach (1981 and 1982), Priath Fernando 1980, Pheroze Billimoria (1984, 1986, 1991, 1992), S. Ritchie (1987 and 1988), K. Nandasena Perera 1989 and 1990, prior to winning the Beijing Asian Games Silver Medal in 1990, J.C. Lee (1993 and 1994), Alain Gyi (1995, 1999, 2000), Rusi Captain who holds the record for the highest number of NEGC Championship titles of nine in total (1996, 1997, 1998, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006) may not be overhauled in Nuwara Eliya. The Championship was not played in 2007 and K. Prabagaran was crowned Champ in 2008 and 2009 before he turned Professional on the PGTI.

Thereafter, the youngsters took over with Amrith De Soysa winning the Championship in 2010, 2011 and 2013. Zen Dharmaratne won in 2012 and Prashan Peiris another promising youngster won in 2014 and the evergreen Ranil Peiris captured the title in 2015 and 2016 and in 2018 whilst Sachin De Silva won in between in 2017.

Dialog Enterprise is the main sponsor of this mega event with Amazing Sri Lanka coming in as a Co-sponsor.