Praba maintains lead after Round 2 in the Sri Lanka Golf Open

Wednesday, 22 January 2014 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Prabagaran followed up his first round seven under par with a two under par 69 to lead the field by three strokes from Thangaraja who shot a magnificent 7 under par. Thangaraja fired eight birdies on the 6th,7th,9th,10th,12th,13th,14th and 15th to be 8 under for the second round but mishit his tee shot on the 17th to record the single bogey for the day and end up with 7 under and stand in solitary 2nd place on 6 under par 3 strokes behind Prabagaran. The Defending Champion Anura Rohana having won the Sri Lanka Open Championship in 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012 is set to extend his wins for a record 8th time which will be unprecedented.

Anura Rohana returned to Sri Lanka in the early hours of Monday morning after participating in the Thailand King’s Cup in the PGTI where he made the cut and finished in the 63rd place. Anura Rohana followed up his even par first round with a five under 66 to stay well in contention four strokes off the lead. Mithun Perera looking for his first SL Open Championship win played steady Golf to card a 68 following up on his first day 69 to join Anura Rohana in 3rd place 4 strokes behind the leader. N. Ranga (69) and Tissa Chandradasa( 70) were the only others to score below par.The youngsters maintained their composure and Sachin De Silva returned an even par 71 to beat Zaffar Sikkander by 2 strokes among the amateur members to win the 3rd UTE Cat Challenge Trophy for men. The UTE-Cat Challenge Trophy was well contested with 44 players in the field and the top 5 producing four youngsters. Sanjeewa Wickramanayake was the only ‘senior’ in the top 5, in 4th place among Sachin, Zaffar, Prashan and Ishira. Sachin De Silva completed the double by returning the two round best aggregate net score of 138. The youngster challenge of Sachin and Zaffarin the UTE-Cat Sri Lanka Open Championship is extremely encouraging with both players in 6th and joint 9thplace respectively. The cut-off was applied at 165 with 41 players qualifying to continue in the 4 round Open Championship. Zen Darmaratne carded an even par 71 while Arumugam lost his joint 2nd place on the first day with a round of 76. Senior citizen G.Harisson shot a 72, to be in joint 15th place with Padmanathan the VGC Pro. The final qualifier to make the cut was veteran senior citizen R Premaratne(Navy Pro) at 165. The Challenge at the top of the leader board seems quite stiff and an exciting 3rd round of Golf is expected. The Pam Fernando Challenge Trophy will get underway today(22nd) with 20 amateur ladies in the fray. The Leaderboard at the end of the 2nd round 133 – K Prbagaran(64,69) 136 – N.Thangaraja(72,64) 137 – Anura Rohana(71,66) , Mithun Perera(69,68) 143 – N Ranga(74,69) 144 – Sachin De Silva (73,71) 145 – M Arumugam (69,75) , Tissa Chandradasa(75,70) 146 – Z Sikkander(71,75) , M Amarapathma(73,73) , G.M Pradeep Kumara(75,71) , J J Kumara(71,75) 147 – Zen Dharmaratne(76,71) , Lalith Kumara(74,73) 148 – G Harisson (76,72) , R Padmanathan(73,75) UTE-Cat Challenge Trophy results Best 2 round aggregate gross Winner – Sachin De Silva – 144 Runner up – Zaffa Sikkander – 146