Tight battle for semifinal berth at SL Junior Match Play Golf Championship
Wednesday, 8 April 2015 00:00
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The second day of the Sri Lanka Junior Match Play Golf Championship, sponsored by Perera and Sons, saw the Copper Division, consisting of 20 kids under 10 years of age, teeing off with much excitement to secure a place in the semifinal.
The Sri Lanka Golf Union decided to create this new division in order to initiate their long-term plan to develop the next generation of golf champions. Both boys and girls were out together and had to play off the same tee marker for nine holes.
Yanik Kumara topped the batch with a well-complied gross score of 42 with Tien Kapilasena, who was hot on his heels, recording 43, closely followed by K. Dhanushan on 44. The tussle for a final semifinal spot saw a close finish between Nirekh Tejwani (51), Qasim Moosajee (52) and Shanal Binushka (54), with Nirekh just managing to scrape through. The keenness shown by the youngsters, including Kaiyan John Pillai who is only five, bodes well for the future of Sri Lankan golf.
In the Gold, Silver and Bronze divisions the quarterfinalists battled it out in the midday heat neither seeking nor giving any quarter. However, there were no upsets in the Open/Gold Division for the Rukmini Kodagoda trophy, with all four top seeds eventually coming through as expected.
Ishira Fernando beat Hiruna Sigera 5/4 and defending champion Prashan Peiris sent D. Dhanaranjan home at the 16th 3/2 while Armand Flamer Caldera torched his opponent S.Kailas 4/3. However, the current junior open champion Lamindu Rainaka had a slight scare against Akash Thangadore, winning only at the final hole 1 up.
The Silver Division had one upset when Dilshan Malinda outshone a young and emerging Iman Sangani by 5/4 while top seed Taniya Minel showed her class with a huge victory over Shaveetha Kohombange 9/7 and Sathsara Dilshan also romped home early defeating Avisha Gunawardena 6/5. Kehan Allis, who arrived just in time from Malaysia, also made his mark by defeating Dimuthu Fernando 3/2 to set up an interesting semifinal with favorite Taniya.
The Bronze Division had some excitement with the match of the day between Mahisha Hirushan and Levon Niyarepola going all the way to a sudden-death playoff. Levon showed that he was a chip-off-the-old-block, having a past RCGC club champion Dad biting his nails and following proceedings all the way through to see him snatch victory at the 19th.
Top Seed Kayla Perera earned a rest day and will meet Vikash Thangadore who beat Amrik Perera 5/4 while Tarin Wijeyasinghe, who cleaned up Damin Kotagama 6/5, will be matched up against Levon in an exciting day of play on Wednesday.
