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Reigning champion 21-year-old Sachin de Silva successfully defended his title at the 96th Royal Colombo Golf Club Championships which concluded at the RCGC golf links recently.
More than 60 golfers took part in the tournament and played the qualifying rounds from which the top 32 were chosen for the matchplay stages. Amrith de Soysa and Rusi Captain emerged as the top seed and second seed respectively.
In the matchplay stage semi finals, Amrith suffered a shock defeat to Kushal Johnpillai, who beat him in a sudden death clash on the 19th, while Rusi lost to Sachin de Silva 1 down on the 18th.
In the 36-hole final between Kushal and Sachin, Kushal, playing great golf, was 6 up after the morning session. Sachin squared a 6 down deficit on the 12th hole but two brilliant birdies by Kushal on the 14th and 15th had him two up again in the match with three holes to play. However, Sachin made no mistake and made pars on the 16th, 17th and 18th to Kushal’s two bogeys and a double bogey to win one up on the 36th hole. It was Sachin’s second consecutive club championship title.