Golf returns for first time since Coronavirus hiatus

(FASTNEWS | COLOMBO) – Competitive golf is ready to resume following the end of the lockdowns for covid-19 with three major events lined-up at the Royal Colombo Golf Course (RCGC) and at the Nuwara Eliya Golf Club (NEGC) today and on Sunday.

The RCGC will host Sri Lanka’s oldest corporate golf tournament held under the prestigious Shakespeare Shield, which will be the 109th edition.

This tournament is an annual board event at the RCGC and is the only competition open for members and teams from registered companies, diplomatic institutions, government agencies, police, and the armed forces of Sri Lanka.

This tournament would be a one-day Stableford event while making it even more exciting and narrowing the margin for an error.

The Shakespeare Shield Golf Tournament is named after W. Shakespeare, a former Chairman of Carson Cumberbatch PLC, who was elected to the RCGC Committee in 1908.

The tournament was initiated in his honour in 1911 and since then it has been on the annual golf calendar of the RCGC.

Last year, Softlogic Holding’s Niloo Jayathilake and Dihan Dedigama took home the coveted Shakespeare Shield, with Jayathilake becoming the first woman to win the 108-year-old annual feature event.

Andy Anderson and Gerard Fernando from Senok Air Cargo were placed second last year, while Milinda Ratnayake and Navin De Silva of Sri Lankan Airlines were placed third.

Meanwhile, the Nuwara Eliya Golf Course will also be full of activities when the NEGC conducts two events today and tomorrow with the tee-off scheduled for 7.30 a.m. on both days.

The NEGC will host the Sandy Perkins Cup Tournament today (11) and it will be followed with the Ernest Ringle Trophy Tournament on the following day (12).

These two tournaments will be conducted according to a Stableford format and the participants will be severely tested with strong winds and slightly wet conditions during this period of the year. Major General Srinath Rajapaksa, Rizmy Sheriff, Rohan de Silva, Affli Raheem, and Pavithra Fernando are some of the top contenders for the titles on offer.  DN