Victoria-Best Golf Course in sub-continent

S.M. Jiffrey Abdeen- Kandy Sports Correspondent

Victoria Golf and Country Resort has done it for the fourth time when it won the prestigious award as the 'Best Golf Course in the Sub-Continent at the 12th year of the Asian Golf Awards organized by the Asian Golf Monthly and held at the Pattaya Exhibition & Convention Hall in Pattaya, Thailand recently.

This award was collected by the Senior Marketing Executive of Victoria Golf and Country Resort Danushika Medagoda and the Course Manager Indu Rodrigo on behalf of the winners.

Victoria Golf and Country Resort which started off as the Victoria Golf Club and later re-named has a brief history of 14 years and during this period, it has performed remarkably well to win this prestigious awards on four different occasions besides being runner-up on many occasions. It won this award first in 2002 and followed by winning in 2008 and 2009.

The Chairman of Victoria Golf and Country Resort Chris Holloway and the Australian born General Manager Errol Johnston were delighted when they received the news from Thailand that they had won this award.

It was in the early nineties when that great sportsman and planter late Mark Bostock during one of his visits to this region had visions of a golf course on the banks of the Victoria reservoir. There were the initial setbacks but he boxed on and did not throw in the towel. The first tuft of grass was planted in the mid nineties and the golf course was designed by no less than a personality like the world renowned golf architect and one time President of the British Golfers Union Donald Steel along with another golf architect Martin Ebert who still visits this golf course and helps them to upgrade the existing facilities.

The designs of Donald Steel was put in place by the former Thomian cricketer and planter Tony Witham who come over from Melbourne Parks to accept this challenging task at the behest of his former employer at Aislaby Group, Bandarawela late Mark Bostock. He did a fine job of it and as the Chairman Chris Holloway once remarked at an award ceremony that the golf course was completed at very much below the estimated cost despite the market price fluctuations.

This golf course is located in a 558 acre sprawling coconut plantation with full of small wildlife and birds coupled with a breathtaking view of the Victoria reservoir from one of

the trees atop a hillock over a hundred yards above the fairways.

The fairways are lined with Mara (rain trees) and the magnificent flowering shrubs add to the beauty of the course.

This golf course is rated among the 100 most beautiful golf courses in the world. One of the trees located 100 feet above the fairways and requires the most challenging effort to come to terms with it.