SL Junior Golf open set for 2 January

Sri Lanka Junior Open Golf Championship 2018 and Regional Junior Open Golf Championship 2019 sponsorship present by Ceylon Agro Industries (Prima Group Sri Lanka) General Manager Shun Tien Shing (fourth from left) to Sri Lanka Golf Union President Air Chief Marshal Harsha Abeywickrema. From left: Royal Colombo Golf Club Vice Captain Shiran Fernando, Nuwara Eliya Golf Club Captain Firaz Hameed, Sri Lanka Golf Union Junior Sub Committee Chairperson Niloo Jayatileke, Ceylon Agro Industries (Prima Group Sri Lanka) Deputy General Manager Sajith Gunaratne and Sri Lanka Golf Union Secretary Nishan Navaratne are also present

The Sri Lanka Junior Golf Open will take place from 2-4 January 2019 at the Royal Colombo Golf Club, it has been announced, with Prima Ceylon set to sponsor the event for an 11th consecutive year. 

The event, one of the most prestigious in the junior golf calendar, will once again be categorised into four age groups: 15-18 years (Gold Division), 12-14 years (Silver Division), 10-11 years (Bronze Division), and nine years and under (Copper Division). The overall winner over the 18-hole event will be declared the Sri Lanka Junior National Golf Champion (Boy/Girls) for the year 2018.

Reigning Junior Champion Vinod Weerasinghe, who is currently in the USA, is expected to return to the island to defend his title. Vinod, the top ranked junior has won this prestigious event twice before, and, with his ongoing professional coaching overseas, is heavily tipped for the title this year as well. However, a quartet of young golfing talents, namely the juniors S. Dhuwarshan, Aroon Aslam, Nirekh Tejwani and Yannik Kumara, are expected to provide Vinod with some stiff competition. In the girls category top junior golfers Taniya Balasuriya and Kayla Perera are once again expected to fight it out for the title. Still in their mid-teens, the pair have been earmarked for great things, evoking memories of past Sri Lankan greats such as Thuhashini Selvaratnam and Tiru Fernando. In the more junior categories K. Danushan, Shanal Binuksha, Levon Niyarepola, Reshan Algama, Sherin Balasuriya, Kavindha Samarasekera, M. Lidhurshan, M.S. Sanjay and C. Dharaniyan from Nuwara Eliya have been identified as exciting emerging talents, and this event should provide them the ideal opportunity to showcase their burgeoning skills.

Prima Sunrise, the title sponsor of this tournament, will as always provide nutrition for the players during the event. 

“With more than a decade of magnanimous sponsorship this generous support by Prima Ceylon is ample testimony to its continued commitment to promoting junior golf in the country in partnership with the national body for golf in the country the Sri Lanka Golf Union,” stated a media release.

“The committed sponsorship of junior golf by Prima has been invaluable to the Sri Lanka Golf Union in promoting the sport island wide and this year increased participation is expected especially from the Kandy, Anuradhapura and Nuwara Eliya regions.” Indeed, over recent times the popularity of the sport has been growing, largely down to the focused outreach programs carried out by Sri Lanka Golf to propagate the sport at the grassroots level. 

This initiative was the brainchild of the Junior Sub Committee of Sri Lanka Golf as a means of identifying young golfing talent in the country, with a view to nurturing and developing them for future national and international representation.

Pix by Ruwan Walpola