India’s No. 1 Udayan Mane favourite for Sri Lanka title

Tuesday, 22 April 2014 00:35 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The 127th edition of the oldest National Amateur Golf Championship outside of the UK gets underway from 22 April 2014 in the cool climes of Nuwara Eliya (also known as Little England). The very first National Championship of Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) was played at the Nuwara Eliya Golf Club in 1891, which incidentally is also celebrating 125 years of its existence. This championship was initially played twice a year alternating between Colombo and Nuwara Eliya. The two world wars interrupted this bi-annual feature and since 1946 has been played annually under the control of the Sri Lanka Golf Union. Golf being the fastest growing sport in the world now has many top golfers in the Asian Region and the coveted Sri Lanka title has keen competition from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Thailand as well this year to battle it out amongst themselves and against the local talent. India has also sent two lady golfers Astha Madan and Tvesa Malik to vie for the Ladies Championship which is being played simultaneously. Former Sri Lanka title holder Suwen Selvaratnam, up-coming hopeful Kishani Vethavinayakam, Rasika Ekanayake (finalist 2013), Michelle Mirchandani and Roshi Sangani will be the local favourites for the Ladies National Title. The Men’s Championship kicks off with 2 stroke play rounds on 22 and 23 April to qualify 32 golfers for the match play knock out segment and the two finalists will play on Sunday 27 April. The 2 stroke play rounds will also count in the International Team Event for the Parlakemedi Trophy while Pakistan and Sri Lankan teams will also have their scores notched up for the Zia-ul-Haq Trophy. The players with best individual gross and net scores on day 1 will win the Victoria Cup and Illankoon Trophy respectively. Sri Lanka National Team – Sisira Kumara/P. Hemantha Sri Lanka A Team – Danusha Perera/D.M. Pradeep Sri Lanka B Team – Vinod Kumar/G.M. Pradeep Kumara India – Udayan Mane/Aman Raj Pakistan – MansoorTeli/Salman jehangir Bangladesh – MD Sahib Ali/Ismail Thailand – Chanachok Dejpirattanamongkol / Nattawat Suvajanakorn The ladies too will have plenty to play for during the qualifying stage of 2 stroke play rounds competing for the Leonard Peiris Cup, the Firestone/Jepson Cup, the Lilamani Weeraratne Trophy, the Pin Fernando Trophy and the FB de Mel Cup. Senior men aged 50+ will be contending for the Senior Champion title over 2 rounds. Main sponsors of the tournament are Etisalat, Cargills and Kreative Krib.