Over sixty golfers will tee off at Victoria

S. M. Jiffrey Abdeen Kandy sports corr. at Victoria

Over sixty golfers will be in action when the annual club championship of the Victoria Golf and Country Resort sponsored jointly by the Golf Club and Pericyl will be worked off for two days, today and tomorrow at the picturesque Victoria golf course at Rajawella off Kandy. The golfers will tee off at 7.30 a.m. on each day. (Friday/Saturday).

This club championship will be played over two rounds for Nett and Gross titles and there will be separate competition for ladies and gents.

Victoria Golf and Country Resort has been a hive of activity and many competitions are being organised by the Australian born General Manager Errol Johnstone - himself a keen golfer who participates in all the competitions with the longest drive as his forte. He comes all the way from Bandarawela where he had taken up residence to participate in golf events.

Victoria has been experiencing very little showers but the course is in extremely good condition due to the efforts taken by the Course Manager Maheel Bulumulla under the direction of General Manager Errol Johnston. Course Manager Bulumulla has come in for a lot of praise by both local and foreign golfers for making the course challenging where the golfers will use their skills to come to terms with it.

This is what the golfers want in a course where the 18 holes takes you to a distance of nearly seven kilometres and over four hours of play in an atmosphere which is cool with a cool breeze often wafting across the course which is on the banks of the Victoria reservoir.

Some of the top golfers at Victoria have entered this tournament. As usual there is going to be tough tussle between Sujeewa Lankatillake, Ian Tait, Sidath Wettimuni, Nimal Wettimuni and Sanjeewa Wickremanayake. The others who should excel are Sam Gunaratne, Sirath Kasthuriratne, Rolf Tibblins, Tony Witham, Richard Witham, Charlie Worral, Sunil Jayakoddy, Errol Johnston, Desmond Haynes, Mangala Niyarapola just to name a few.

That 'never say die' golfer Rohan de Silva who has come over from Australia is mustard keen to participate but is indisposed. But he said, if he could walk he will be there to have a go. A one time winner of the Eberts Pot, Rohan de Silva is a very enthusiastic golfer.

Among the ladies it is going to be a hectic tussle between the regular winner at Victoria expatriate Sonia Boyle and the much improved Jyoti Haynes who excelled at the recently concluded Lexmark Stableford competition. Others who are raring to have a go are Manori Jayakoddi, Lillian Perera, Indira Tibblin, Linda Harris, Joanne Moore, Pauline Morley and Suwen Selvaratnam if she is back in the island.

This club championship is one of the major golfing events hosted by Victoria for its members since it was opened in 1998. Within this short ten year period, Victoria golf course which stands on over 500 acres of land in a beautiful setting has brought honour to the country by being ranked among the 100 most beautiful golf courses in the world.

Victoria was also voted twice as the 'Best golf course' in the sub-continent in a survey conducted by the Asian Golf Digest. Thus to achieve all these, high standards will have to be maintained.

Designed by the world famous golf architect Donald Steel, this 18 hole course designed for 36 holes has been built up to USGA standards, on a coconut plantation which was once a Dutch farm over three centuries ago. But the credit of building this course should go to former Thomian and Upcountry cricketer Tony Witham who spared no pains in supervising the planting of grass. He sacrificed a lucrative career as a Superintendent of Parks in Melbourne, Australia to takeover this challenging task giving the hill capital a golf course which has boosted up tourism. In the construction of this golf course, the nature has been not interfered with, the rows of trees, outcropping of rocks and the undulating plains has been kept intact which has made this golf course unique in every sense.

The sixth hole stands 100 feet above the fairways commanding a fine view of the greens below. This is recognized as the toughest Par 4 in Sri Lanka. In addition to this, there are three other holes which are over 500 yards long. A golfer requires distance, accuracy and steel of nerves to come to terms with them.

Recently another facility in the form of 'Araliya Restaurant' has been added to its many facilities which could accommodate 60 seats.