Deepal and Dihan to witness 150th Open Championship in Scotland

HSBC successfully concluded two back-to-back golf tournaments at the Royal Colombo Golf Club ( RCGC) recently which brought together golfers of RCGC and HSBC Premier sector who competed for a shot at winning a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to witness the 150th Open Championship at St. Andrews in Scotland.

This year over 180 golfers demonstrated their skills at the HSBC Premier Golf Tournament held for the ninth year, while over 250 golfers from RCGC played in the annual 5-Club S t abl e f o rd Tournament, marking 26 years of HSBC’s title sponsorship.

Deepal Akuretiyagama was the overall winner to take home the HSBC Premier Challenge Trophy and was also winner of the Seniors, Ladies and Division 'C' with a score of 43 points. Dihan Dedigama scored, with 38 points on a B/B 9, was the winner of Divisions ' A' and ' B'. Anouk Chitty won the Ladies division with 39 Points, while Chandana de Silva won the Senior division with 37 Points.

The two overall winners were each presented with a fully sponsored hospitality package each to watch the 150th Open Championship at St. Andrews in Scotland from July 10 to 17, where HSBC is a patron. In addition, each winner was also awarded a global health policy with benefits up to US$ 800,000 courtesy of Allianz Insurance as part of HSBC’s global partnership.

Sanjeewa Wickramanayake and Adrian Perera also walked away with a Global Health Insurance plan each from Allianz Insurance offered exclusively to HSBC Premier customers during a special draw.

The overall winner at this year’s 5- Club Stableford Tournament was Manoj Algama, who secured the highest score of 43 points. The ladies champion was Fran de Mel, who scored 40 points. Winning the Division ' A' was W. A. K. Fernando with 41 points and the Division 'B' winner was Manoj Algama, who claimed 43 points. The winner of Division ' C' was Manjula Lanerolle, who scored 42 points, while Harendra de Silva won the Senior division with a score of 39 points.

Continuing from last year, this year’s Premier Golf tournament also invited Premier Juniors to test their skills on the course with an 18- hole stroke play. Kaiyan Johnpillai won the 12 and below age group with 93 gross points and Arika Wickramasinghe won the 13-18 age group scoring 75 gross.

In keeping with HSBC’s Net Zero ambitions, a key highlight this year was that every participating golfer at both tournaments received a box of recycled bamboo tees from OCEANTEE, who will be supplying the same recycled tees to the 150th Open Championship at St. Andrews, Scotland. Further, to support RCGC’s own ambition of becoming carbon neutral through Project Zero, the HSBC Premier Golf T- shirts worn at the tournament were made from recycled pet bottles.