Swing, chip and putt – here’s your chance to understand golf

HSBC Future Lions golf grassroots programfrom 1-5 Aug.

Squadron Leader Naveen Gunaratne - Sri Lanka Air Force; Tharanga Gunasekera - Head of Marketing and Communications, HSBC; Dirk Flamer Caldera - Chairperson Schools Golf Development Committee; Priath Fernando – President of the Sri Lana Golf Union; Lallith Ramanayake - Representative of the Victoria Golf Club; Maj Gen Srinath Rajapakse - President NEGC, Commodore Rohan Lelwala - Sri Lanka Navy and Niloo Jayatilake - Chairperson Junior Subcommittee and Council Member of the Sri Lanka Golf Union

HSBC, together with the Sri Lanka Golf Union, will conduct the ‘HSBC Future Lions’ grassroots golf program from 1-5 August. 

The program is organised on the sidelines of the first-ever HSBC International Junior Golf Championship between Sri Lanka, Pakistan, India and Bangladesh. 

The HSBC Future Lions grassroots program is open to kids between eight and 13 years of age across Sri Lanka who are keen to learn the game of golf.

Registrations are currently open and interested parents and schools can call Duminda on 0714-327343 at the Sri Lanka Golf Union to register for any location convenient to them. 

The HSBC Future Lions grassroots program will be conducted in four locations, namely in Colombo at the Aqua golf driving range in Welisara, Anuradhapura at the Eagles’ Heritage Golf Club, the Victoria Golf & Country Club Digana in  Kandy and the Nuwara Eliya Golf Club. 

This program will then culminate with the Junior Golf Championship (individual event) on 9 August and the much looked forward to HSBC International Junior Golf Championship featuring national teams from four countries on 10 August.

HSBC Head of Marketing and Communications Tharanga Gunasekera stated: “As a global supporter of golf, we are extremely happy to have partnered the Sri Lanka Golf Union to introduce a structured event in our endeavour to promote the game to kids in Sri Lanka. We will also look to support them in continuing the game and to one day represent Sri Lanka as a junior golfer internationally. We welcome our clients and all Sri Lankans who are interested in getting their children enrolled, to sign them up at any of the four locations across Sri Lanka.”  

The grassroots program will be conducted at the newest and only golf course in Anuradhapura, the Eagles’ Heritage Golf Club, which is a nine-hole course and offers an 18-hole experience with different angles of tee and a unique round of golf for a par of 70. 

A spokesperson for the Sri Lanka Air Force said: “We are keen to develop the game in the country and through this program we hope to tap the budding talent of young kids. This is indeed a unique opportunity for kids in rural areas of the country to be able to experience golf with the available courses. We hope kids will be able to realise their potential through the program and craft a new skill in golf.” 

In Kandy the program will be conducted at the picturesque Victoria Golf and Country Club. Lallith Ramanayake, representing the club, stated: “We will be covering a fairly large area in Kandy and approach schools in and around the Digana area, including leading schools in Kandy where kids are keen to learn golf.”

He added: “Golf is all about hand-eye coordination. It’s also the ability and mental and physical strength that need to get built up as kids grow older. The golf swing has to be groomed at a very young age and that is why you need to catch them young. That is why the HSBC Future Lions’ grassroots program is going to be a fantastic program.”  

The HSBC Future Lions grassroots program aims to make golf everybody’s game, similar to other key sports, by furnishing the basic facilities to enable kids to play golf and improve their knowledge about the game, so that they will continue to play golf and commit more time to the game.

Anil Perera, a Class A Professional from the PGTCA of America, who will be in charge of the grassroots rollout, said: “Our aim is to try and condition kids who have never played golf before to try and understand it through visuals that demonstrate the key concepts that are grip, stance, posture and swing. There will also be a golf video shown and we are going to play a hole with instructors who are scratch golfers. All participating students will be positioned along the fairways while pros play the hole from the tee box to the green and show how to finish a game. This is what is done in North America where children are taken through the process of being conditioned by viewing tour professionals playing at PGA tournaments.”

There will be hitting stations set up where one group will be engaged in the full swing and the others will putt at the putting green with two instructors each at each station, enabling each child to hit about 10 golf balls. Given that some of these kids have never held a golf club before, they will be monitored and guided throughout the process. 

Navy Aqua Golf driving range

While HSBC has come forward to initiate this unique program, it will be up to the individual golf course to follow up with continuity. Meanwhile, the Sri Lanka Golf Union too will provide help in every way to see that these programs are continued from this point.

The very unique Navy Aqua Golf driving range in Welisara, where water takes the role of greens, will also conduct the HSBC Future Lions program for interested kids in and around Colombo.  Commodore Rohan Lelwala said: “Golf is perceived to be an expensive game and it is somewhat difficult to continue without proper facilities. The Commander of the Navy has agreed to give their fullest support to conduct this program in Welisara. The Navy Aqua Golf driving range has the adequate facilities with a mini golf course and a clubhouse to conduct training for kids and we hope to get good representation for the program.” 

Nuwara Eliya Golf Club President Major General Srinath Rajapakse stated: “Our vision is to produce national level junior golfers to compete on the Asian circuit. At present we conduct a two-day weekly program with nearly 200 schoolchildren and among them is a junior golfer who has already been selected to participate in Vietnam. We hope that the Nuwara Eliya Golf Course, which is the oldest and most centrally situated in this beautiful city, will help pave the way for more local schoolchildren to move up to the national level and hopefully the international level in the future.” 

Sri Lanka is one of the oldest golf playing nations in the world and boasts of two clubs within the top 20 oldest clubs in the world. Golf was started in Sri Lanka long before the US opened the game to the general public, making it vastly popular, compared to Sri Lanka where it was not promoted like cricket, to reach its full potential. 

Nuwara Eliya Golf Club Captain Firaz Hameed said: “We are delighted to know that HSBC has come forward to help junior golf in Sri Lanka and we are fully supportive of this initiative. We see tremendous potential with the kids in Nuwara Eliya judging by the NEGC junior academy which began in 2014 with just six kids and has successfully grown with 220 children being enrolled to date. So by opening up the game to the local community in Nuwara Eliya, we are confident that the program will reach the next level.”  

Vice Captain Avancka Herath of RCGC, where the main two tournaments will be held, stated: “We have played the most significant role in the past in producing future champions and we will continue to do so in the future. Given our role in Sri Lankan golf as the oldest and most prominent club, we have consciously invested in developing the game and improving golfing knowledge within the membership. We are the only club which has a USGA qualified golf professional and we have invested in our golfing facilities, so we will continue to support junior golf and the Golf Union.”

Chairperson of the Sri Lanka Golf Union Junior Subcommittee, Niloo Jayatilake, added: “It is indeed heartwarming to have had the unstinting support from all those who responded so spontaneously to promote at the grassroots level a game in which Sri Lanka has the potential to one day perform in the global arena. There now is a structure in place to unearth new talent and to truly develop and broad-base the sport. The talent search in particular will no doubt take more than a few years to reap its full potential, but I am confident, judging by the overwhelming response received this year, the SLGU will have no difficulty in continuing with this format in the years to come.”