Golf double for Suwaneetha

S. M. Jiffrey Abdeen, Kandy Sports Corr.

GOLF: Sujeewa Lankatillake won the Men's Gross Division while that versatile golfer Suwaneetha Selvaratnam walked away with the double of both Ladies Gross and Net titles at the fifth round of the Victoria Monthly Medal Golf Series for November worked off at the beautiful Victoria Golf course at Rajawella off Kandy.

This monthly golf championship organised by the Victoria Golf and Country Resort is fast gaining momentum with every competition and is turning out to be extremely popular with Airline tickets thrown in as prizes for participation at the Grand draw to be held on December 16th after the final contest.

Sujeewa Lankatillake who returned to the island after a long stay in Switzerland has fast acclimatised himself to the local conditions and course to clinch his third win in the series. Playing to a handicap of 6, Sujeewa Lankatillake won the Men's Division one Gross title with a good score of 80.

But Englishman Mike Varney was breathing fire behind him getting a fine 81, just one stroke behind. This will give some indication to the closeness of the battle.

R. Pathmanathan who was invited to play in the November medal round made an astounding gross 82. Some of the noteworthy scores in the Men's gross division were Ecole International Schoolboy Chamil Wickramasinghe 83, Ian Tait 84, Errol Johnston 93, and Sam Gunaratne 94.

In Men's Division two competition, former Thomian cricketer now turned golfer and one of the pioneers of the Victoria Golf course now in retirement and he played to a handicap of 14 to return an excellent 88 to clinch the division two title.

Kandy Gateway International School schoolboy Sidath Hemachandra finished runner-up with 99 and veteran cricketer cum golfer Sirath Kasthuriratne was placed third with 101.

Tony Witham who had a good day at the course being not satisfied with the Division two Gross title went on to complete the double by winning the Division two Net title also by getting good score of 74 net which gave him a good four stroke lead over the second placed Anura Dantanarayana who collected a net 79.

Versatile golfer Suwaneetha Selvaratnam who comes all the way from Colombo for the Monthly Medal competition and she brought fame to the motherland when she won one of the top competitions for Ladies at the recently concluded SriLankan Airlines Golf Classics 2006 organised by the Victoria Golf and Country Resort once again proved her mettle by dominating both the Ladies Gross and Net Divisions.

Very graceful and stylish in her approach to the game Suwaneetha Selvaratnam carded a gross 79 off a handicap of 9 to win the Gross title.

Jyoti Haynes, a very regular golfer at Victoria got a net score of 79 to finish second in the Ladies Net Division which too was won by Suwaneetha Selvaratnam with 70 net.

In third place was Colombo International School's (Kandy branch) Anne Anngood with 81.