Sisira, Sanjeewa for 116th Indian Amateur Golf C'ship
Lankan golfers, Sisira Kumara and Sanjeewa Wickremenayake are in good form, brimming with confidence and determined to make an impact when they play at the 116th Amateur Golf Championship to be played in India from December 5 to 11 at Royal Calcutta Golf Club in India.
They will take wing to Kolkatta to represent Sri Lanka in the international team event and also to vie for the Champion Title in the 116th Amateur Golf Championship of India, played at the Royal Calcutta Golf Club, a happy hunting ground for Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka has very good history at the Amateur Golf Championship of India, which inaugurated in 1892 followed the Amateur Golf Championship of Ceylon, the second oldest Amateur Championship inaugurated in 1891.
Legendary Amateur Golfer Pin Fernando created history for then Ceylon, winning two Amateur Golf Championships of India in 1952 and 1954.
Subsequently the late Pin Fernando reached the finals two occasions in 1964 and 1967, to be the runner-up.
After 34 years, K. Nandasena Perera reached the final and he clinched the All-India Golf Championship, to become the second Sri Lankan to win an Indian Premier Amateur Championship in 1988.
The feat was so spectacular that Nandasena Perera, swept the board as it were, winning the Amateur Championships in Pakistan, Malaysia and Thailand in the same period.
K. A. Chandradasa (Tissa), was the next Sri Lankan to make a mark, reaching the final in 1996, losing the 36 hole final one down to Aimal Zaman from Pakistan.
Subsequently Nandasena Perera won the Silver Medal for Sri Lanka at the 1990 Beijing Asian Games.
Another top class golfer B.G. Lalith Kumara as a youngster burst on the scene and grabbed the Indian Amateur Championship in 1998 and followed up that success winning the championship a second time in 2003, at the Royal Calcutta Golf Club.
R. A. Anura Rohana also reached the final in between in Mumbai defeated by Richard Sterne of South Africa in the Millennium year 2000. Of course, subsequently, Rohana went on to win the second silver medal for Sri Lanka in Golf, at the Seoul Games in 2002.
In the footsteps of Lalith Kumara, K. Prabagaran of Nuwara Eliya took the All India Amateur Championship in 2006, to become the fourth Sri Lankan to win the prestigious and very challenging Amateur Golf Championship of India.
Since 2006, no Sri Lankan has reached the final and seems about the right time once again after 10 years since a Sri Lankan won, that the 2016 Sri Lankan team comprising Sisira Kumara the runner up in the 129th Sri Lanka Amateur Golf Championship and B. A Sanjeewa could well pose a challenge to win the Championship once again for Sri Lanka.
Meanwhile , a Sri Lanka ladies team will also participate in the 100th All India Ladies Amateur Golf Championship to be played in New Delhi from December 12 to 19. Teenagers, Taniya Minel Balasuriya and Kayla Perera are included in the ladies team for this landmark Centennial Ladies Golf Championship