Prima Sunrise Bread sponsors Sri Lanka Junior Open Golf Championship for 10th consecutive year

For the 10th consecutive year, Ceylon Agro Industries (Prima Group, Sri Lanka) has come forward to sponsor the most prestigious event on the junior golf calendar, the Sri Lanka Junior Open. 

This year’s sponsorship by Prima Sunrise Bread marks a milestone for the company as it completes a decade of promoting junior golf at the national level in partnership with the national body for golf, the Sri Lanka Golf Union. 

The Sri Lanka Junior Open Golf Championship is the litmus test for juniors who are also required to make it through two regional junior opens, also sponsored by Prima Sunrise Bread, and is the benchmark for the national rankings of the juniors. 

The committed sponsorship of junior golf by Prima Sunrise Bread has been invaluable to the Sri Lanka Golf Union in promoting the sport and this year an increase in participation is expected, especially from Kandy and Nuwara Eliya. The popularity of the sport is seen to be growing throughout the island, mainly due to the focused outreach programs carried out by the SLGU to propagate the sport at the grassroots level. This initiative was developed by the SLGU as a means of identifying the nation’s young golf talent in order to nurture and develop it for future national and international representation.

It is expected that over 80 juniors will participate in the forthcoming event, which will take place at the Royal Colombo Golf Club from 13-15 December and be conducted according to the following age group categories: 15-18 years (Gold Division), 12-14 years (Silver Division), 10-11 years (Bronze Division) and 9 years and Under (Copper Division). The overall winner of three days of stroke play over 18 holes will be declared the Sri Lanka Junior National Golf Champion for 2017.

Last year’s winner among the boys, Vinod Weerasinghe, remains the firm favourite to successfully defend his title. Vinod will be high in confidence, going into the event with the strength of experience gained through his exposure at recent international events in Thailand and India. However, he is likely to face stiff competition from Nuwara Eliya’s local lad Dhuwarshan as well as from Sathsara Dilshan and Armand Flamer Caldera from Colombo. All three young men are currently in sparkling form. 

Leaders in the girls’ category Taniya Balasuriya and Kayla Perera will battle it out at the top. In the most junior categories the players to watch are Nirekh Tejwani, Yannik Kumara, K. Danushan, Shanal Binuksha, Reshan Algama, Sherin Balasuriya and Haroon Aslam, all of whom will have an opportunity to display their temperament and maturity. This year’s tournament will also mark the very first time participants in the youngest category (Under 9 years) will be required to compete in stroke play over all three days of the event.

Prima Sunrise Bread, the main sponsor of this tournament, will yet again provide nutrition and sustenance for players during the event. The sponsorship cheque was handed over by Tan Beng Chuan - Prima Group - Sri Lanka Group General Manager, Shun Tien Shing – General Manager Ceylon Agro Industries (Prima Group Sri Lanka) and Sajith Gunaratne – Deputy General Manager of Ceylon Agro Industries (Prima Group Sri Lanka), the promoters of Prima Sunrise Bread. Priath Fernando – President and Niloo Jayatilake – Council Member and Chairperson of the Junior Golf Development Subcommittee represented the Sri Lanka Golf Union, while Vice-Captain Avancka Herath represented the host, the Royal Colombo Golf Club.