Sri Lanka Junior Match Play Golf Championship finalists decided
Thursday, 9 April 2015 00:00
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On a day which offered cool and overcast conditions for the youngsters playing their third consecutive round, defending champion Prashan Peiris and top seed Ishira Fernando set up a no-holds-barred contest as the finalists of the second Sri Lanka Junior Match Play Golf Championship for the Rukmini Kodagoda Trophy, sponsored by Perera and Sons, were selected at the prestigious Royal Colombo Golf Club.
The much-fancied Fernando, playing extremely confidently, saw off the less experienced but much-improved Armand Flamer Caldera 6/5, while Peiris, playing steady golf, beat the current Sri Lanka Junior Open Champion Lamidu Rainika 2/1.
Taniya Balasuriya continued to dominate the Silver Division with another overwhelming performance, sending Kehaan Allis from Malaysia for an early lunch by beating him 9/7 while Sathsara Dilshan also beat Dilshan Malinda 7/6.
The Bronze Division also saw the top two seeds getting to the finals to set up another exciting contest between Kayla Perera, who beat Vikash Thangadore 1 up and Levon Niyarepola, who recorded a convincing 8/6 victory over Tarin Wijeyasinghe.
The Under-10 Copper Division produced two exciting finishes in the semi-finals. Top seed Yannik Kumara did not have things his own way and had to fight hard to eventually win 2 up at the final hole.
In the bottom half of the table, second seed Tien Kapilasena and third seed K. Dhanushan kept the crowd going with some excellent golf, matching each other shot for shot. Finally, the game had to be extended to a sudden-death playoff when Tien held his nerve and cleared the hazard in two while Dhanushan was forced to play safe. Both boys showed tremendous fighting spirit and in the end although Tien made it through to the final, the game of golf was a clear winner. All credit must go to the Sri Lanka Golf Union for having created this special division and demonstrating that the future of golf in Sri Lanka has tremendous potential.
The juniors who missed the cut played a special round for the plate prize. Devmith Weeraratne won the Gold Division Plate with a gross score of 79, five strokes ahead of Januka Dilshan on 84.The Silver Division Plate Winner was Prabath Ganeshan who finished with a gross of 105, 10 strokes ahead of Haroon Aslam and Vinuk Welikala on 115. The Copper Division Plate again saw a very close contest between Shanal Binushka, Qasim Moosajee and Shenuk Fernando. Binushka won by a margin of one stroke over Qasim and three strokes over Shenuk.
