Golf with a cause

Ozgur Suucak (General Manager – Turkish Airlines) along with Dr. Kumudu Gunasekere (Chairperson – AmCham Golf Tournament) awarding the AmCham trophy to Primal Wijayanayake (Captain - RCGC)

Sanjeeva Abeygoonewardena (CEO, MHEL) along with Ozgur Suucak (General Manager – Turkish Airlines) awarding the Overall Gross Winner prize to Amrith De Soysa (not in picture)

Asanka Ratnayake (President – AmCham) along with Ozgur Suucak (General Manager – Turkish Airlines) awarding the Overall Nett Winner prize to Rohan de Silva

The AmCham-FedEx Golf Tournament 2016 was held recently at the Royal Colombo Golf Club (RCGC). 

The tournament teed off at 6.00 a.m. and the last four-ball came back to the club house at 5.30 p.m. The immaculate condition of the course encouraged high scoring with the overall best score of the day 44 points, coming from Rohan de Silva, who won a return air ticket to any destination in Europe courtesy of Turkish Airlines, in addition to a handsome trophy.

The RCGC Club Champion Amrith De Soysa confirmed his place at the top of the club amateurs by returning the best Gross Score of 37 points to emerge the overall Gross Winner.

The Captain of RCGC and longstanding AmCham Member Primal Wijeyanayake won the prize for the best score among the AmCham members, with a well compiled 36 points pushing Ibrahim Saleem into the runner-up position.

Katthy Twerenbold produced the best score for the ladies for the second consecutive year with 39 points, edging out Kumari Herath, who scored 38 points. The consistent Sharon Hall also won the accolades for the Longest and Most Accurate Drive on the 8th Hole while Geoff Cooke recorded the Longest and Most Accurate Drive in the Men’s challenge.

An array of prizes in many categories were distributed and the ‘A’ Division was won by Mangala Niyarepola. In addition to being crowned the overall winner, Rohan de Silva also won the B Division with the best score of the tournament of 44 points, with Liu Laifu winning the C Division with a solid 43 points. Jouni Aitamaa and D. Serasinghe won the Masters and Seniors categories with 38 points and 34 points respectively.

As has been the case in the past, a portion of the proceeds from the tournament went to a nominated charity and this year’s recipient was the AmCham CSR Initiative ‘AmCham gives back’, which provides equal opportunities to the children of the Glenanore Tamil School in Haputale, by uplifting the school’s IT and sanitation infrastructure. 

Speaking about the tournament AmCham Sri Lanka President Asanka Ratnayake said: “The AmCham Golf Tournament has been a tremendous success for 16 consecutive years. Over the past 16 years the funds raised from the tournament have helped and supported different charitable projects. We are pleased to partner Mountain Hawk Express Ltd. on the 17th year of this tournament as they too make their mark in the courier industry with a top-of-the-line brand such as FedEx.”

CEO MHEL Sanjeeva Abeygoonewardena stated: “It was great to see the interest within the golf fraternity in Sri Lanka towards the tournament. Sports can open up whole new worlds for people, and the AmCham Golf tournament does fantastic work in showing people how sport can help them to connect with each other and to do more together leveraging upon values such as speed, focus and accuracy. These same qualities are part of the FedEx philosophy, making our relationship with golf a complimentary fit.

“We are happy to have concluded yet another successful AmCham FedEx Golf Tournament in Sri Lanka. Our continuous support for this prestigious tournament is a reflection of MHEL’s commitment towards the development of sports as well as helping those who are in need through AmCham’s CSR initiative,” stated COO/GM, MHE Chamila Bandara.

Mountain Hawk Express is a fully-owned subsidiary of Hayleys Advantis which is the transportation and logistics arm of Hayley’s Plc. It operates as the licensee of Federal Express (FedEx) Corporation in Sri Lanka. 

The FedEx Corporation is ranked No. 8 overall and No. 1 in the delivery industry among the most admired companies in the world, according to the 2016 list of  the World’s Most Admired Companies published in Fortune magazine.