Haynes clinches Victoria Anniversary Golf Trophy

S. M. Jiffrey Addeen Kandy Sports Correspondent at Victoria

Expatriate Jyoti Haynes put up a superlative performance to win the final round of the Victoria Anniversary Trophy organised by the Victoria Golf and Country Resort and worked off at the beautiful Victoria Golf course at Rajawella off Kandy.

Brilliant sunshine greeted the large number of golfers who took the field with a lot of gusto and they enjoyed every moment of play on a course made challenging and exciting by the Course Manager Maheel Bulumulla under the guidance of the General Manager Errol Johnston.

Ever smiling Jyoti Haynes has been a regular player at Victoria having taken to this sport a few years back and is a very persevering type, practising as hard as she could when time permitted. She registered an excellent 42 and it was a gritty performance to beat a lot of seasoned campaigners.

This was also her first major trophy at Victoria and "I will endeavour my best to win more trophies in the future she said. She should be a major draw at next week's Donald Steel golf competition where she would vie for honours in the Pam Fernando trophy and the Victoria Bowl. But she had a very close call from another golfer with a lot of determination Manori Jayakody who with 42 was just one point behind.

sheer bad luck

It was sheer bad luck which deprived Manori Jayakody of getting on par with the ultimate winner. In third place was Richard Witham with 38 points and Ian Tait finished fourth with 37 points.

Another regular at Victoria Indira Tibblins displayed very good form and was getting her shots on target when she lifted Ladies Gross title with 18 points. A good warm up for next week's Donald Settle Golf championship. Another golfer in good form Sujeewa Lankatillake won the Men's Gross title with 31 points.

This very good warm up by Sujeewa Lankatillake should help him to have a go at next week's Donald Steel Trophy International Golf championship. Last year he lost by a very close margin and since then he has been performing well along with Ian Tait.

In the other competitions held concurrently with Anniversary championship finals Sanjeewa Wickremanayake did exceptionally well in the Nearest to the pin competition for men and later completed the double by winning the Longest Drive for men with a mighty swipe which cleared a lot of ground.

Another expatriate Pauline Morley who had displayed tremendous improvement won the Nearest to the Pin competition for ladies. Pauline Morley won the Victoria Bowl in 2007 and this win should boost up her morale when she takes the plunge into competition next week and regain her title.

Linda Harris displayed that she is the strongest hitter among the ladies when she won the Longest drive competition for ladies.

distribution of awards

The distribution of awards took place at the club house with General Manager Errol Johnston doing the honours along with Ms Dhanushika Medagoda and Ms Nicolla Bonifass.

The Anniversary golf competition was started last year to coincide with the tenth anniversary of opening the golf course at Victoria which filled a major void for golfers and golf tourist in the Kandy district.

This is one of the biggest golf courses in the island with over 500 acres in extent designed for 36 holes. Apart from this golf course has also provided lucrative employment for youths of the area. This club has been also doing community work in the adjoining village of Kithalmada as a social responsibility.