Ushan and Lalith steal the limelight at Mercedes Trophy Golf Tourney

S M Jiffrey ABDEEN- Kandy Sports Correspondent

Ushan de Silva (Ladies) and Lalith Rohitha (Men) stole the honours at the Annual Mercedes Trophy Golf Championship 2011 organised by the Victoria Golf and Country Resort and sponsored by Dimo – the local agents for Mercedes Benz Vehicles and worked off at the beautiful Victoria Golf Course at Rajawella.

Over 80 golfers took the field on a beautiful day bathed in sunshine and the rains experienced during the week made the grass grow rich and green and golf club staff headed by the General Manager Errol Johnston and Course Manager Maheel Bulumulla made use of this to make the course challenging and difficult for the golfers. Six of the golfers from this competition will qualify to play in the Asian Golf Championship which will be held in Brisbane, Australia later this year.

They are group A-Lalith Rohitha and Lalin Samarawickrema. Group B-Eraj Gunaratne and Ivor Maharoof. Group C-Dharshan de Silva and Sunil de Costa. Valentine Rajendran who finished runner-up in Group C will not be eligible to play in the Asian championship this year as he participated in this championship last year and the rule insists on a one year lay off. Usha de Silva will qualify among the ladies for the Asian Championship.

Group A Handicap between O-12.

Lalith Rohitha playing to a handicap of 11 emerged winner in this segment for low handicappers with a nett score of 43. Lalin Samarawickrama having the same handicap scored 37 thereby conceding a lead of 6 points. Others who registered good scores were Glen Mathew 37 (After a count back), Michael Magala 36, Sidath Wettimuni 35.

Group A Handicap between 13-20

Eraj Gunaratne playing to a handicap of 18 emerged winner with a score of 38 nett. Ivor Maharoof finishing runner-up with a nett score of 37 playing to handicap of 13. A close tussle was witnessed with a single point separating the winner and runner.

Others who excelled in this segment were Caeser Fernando 34 nett (H/C 16), Henry de Mel 33 nett (H/C 19) and Harry Udeshi 33 (H/C 13).

Group C Handicap between 21-24

Dharshan de Silva took this title with a nett Score of 43 playing to a handicap of 24. Valentine ended runner-up with a nett score of 30 playing to a handicap of 23. In third place was Sunil de Costa and Mohan A C Silva with 29 nett each but on a count back on the last 9 holes Sunil de Costa edged out his opponent by the wafer thin margin of 9:14 to 9:13.

Good scores were also registered by Arun Thaper 28 nett, Anil Amarasuriya and Ifthikar Hameed 26 nett each.

Versatile Usha de Silva, a former ladies captain of Royal Colombo Golf Club turned out to be the Queen of the competition for ladies by registering a nett score of 32 playing to a handicap of 13.

This being a contest among the “deadlier of the two species” there was big tussle for supremacy with a fight coming from another versatile lady golfer Suwen Selvaratnam who was just one point behind with 31 nett but her handicap was 8 which in the end was decisive.

Yet another top golfer Niloo Jayatilleke put up a great fight by getting 30 nett playing to a handicap of 9.

What a great fight was between these three ladies with just a point separating them. In fourth place was from de Mel with 29 nett followed by Renuka Fernando 27 nett, Neranjalee Amarasuriya 26 nett. Nelika Weerasinghe 19 nett, Isitha Manapperuma 19 nett and Shyama Perera 18 nett.

Sanjeewa Wickramanayake won the award for the longest drive for men while the nearest to the pin title was pocketed by Wendera Shiek.