Sri Lanka’s second professional golf open

By S.R. Pathiravithana

If monotony creeps into your day-to-day life, our daily deeds can seem like drudgery. Yet, if you are bold enough to first dream and think and then challenge the status quo, the chances are more that you will end up a winner.

Chandana Weerasinghe, though a bit slight in stature, is imposing and goes about his business with real conviction. He knows he is on to a winner in brining the professional golf circuit into Sri Lanka and is not afraid to say that the Lankan pro-golf circuit will reach the standard of upper Asian professional tournaments like the Singapore and the Malaysian Opens within the next five years.Chandana took to golf about a decade ago, but at the beginning he was not quite confident. But, as his game began grow, he not only became a serious golfer, but also began to dream of taking the game towards a path it had not tread before.

Last year it was Standard Charted Bank that came up with the sponsorship and, much to the surprise of the entire circuit, the cup stayed at home, when Mithun Perera beat the more fancied lot of mainly Indian golfers.

This year the tournament is called the SLPA Open with the main sponsorship coming from the Sri Lanka Ports Authority along with Dialog as the other main sponsor. The tournament will be held from April 16-19 at the Ridgeways.

Chandana says this year’s tournament will offer a purse of US$ 70,000. However, according to him to lure the big fish in the Asian pond the Lankan Open will have to offer a sum of at least US$. 300,000.

For this year’s tournament, professional golfers will converge at the RCGC course from India, Nepal, Malaysia, South Africa, the United States and Singapore. Right now there are around 130 entries for this tournament, but they will entertain only one hundred entries.
Besides the professional tournament, the organisers have extended invitations to six top amateurs on the Sri Lanka circuit so that they can sharpen their skills by performing with some of the best in the Indian sub-continent.

Chandana, a man who seems to have a lot of faith in the success in this venture, professed, “You cannot build a castle in one day. Last year we ran into a three million rupee loss, in spite of the tournament being a success on the surface. In an effort of this nature, you have to get the backing of the sponsors to make it a total success. With this year’s show I feel it is picking up. I am sure this tournament will keep growing stronger by the year and that it will be a boon to the country in many more ways than just another sports event.”
The SLPA Open, which is run in collaboration with the PGTI, will be broadcast on the global Star TV network.