Big boost for grassroot level golf:
Sri Lanka Golf Union in collaboration with HSBC will conduct the first ever international junior golf championship in Sri Lanka on August 10 at the Royal Colombo Golf Club (RCGC) with the participation of teams from Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and host Sri Lanka. The international junior tournament is the final event of a triangular junior golf promotion campaign foster by HSBC, including the first ever ‘HSBC Future Lions’ programme and HSBC Junior Golf Championship. This was revealed to the media during a press briefing at the RCGC recently.
The Sri Lanka International Junior Golf Championship is a team championship where a team will comprise six under-18 golfers, including four boys and two girls. HSBC, the global banking giant and a golf promoter who sponsor some of the top annual golf events across the globe has joined hands with SLGU as the sponsor for this milestone event. HSBC has a long rooted history with Sri Lanka golf, being sponsors for HSBC 5 Club and HSBC Premier golf championships.
SLGU president Priath Fernando thanked HSBC to help in this endevour and went on to say that SLGU will invest a lot in grassroot level golf development, as it will be the future of country’s golf. “We had only one annual junior event five years ago, but with the introduction of two Regional Junior events including a Match Play event, junior golf in Sri Lanka is experiencing a big boost. We also introduced junior rankings and lifted the junior segment to international standard. This magnitude of events will surely enhance Sri Lanka’s golfing profile in the international scene. We also hope our juniors will reap the maximum from the two tournaments and regional training programmes,” he concluded.
Niloo Jayatilake, the chair person of SLGU Junior SubCommittee explaining tournament format said that they have introduced a hybrid version, going on par with international standard for the team contest where the morning session will be worked off to select the two best teams on Gross score. The afternoon session will line up the best two teams for the final match play contest to determine the winners. “ We have arranged an individual contest, the HSBC Junior Golf Championship on August 9 with the aim to provide more competition opportunity for junior golfers across the country. “There will be four age category divisions, namely, 15-18+years (Gold Division), 12-14+years (Silver division), 10-11+years (Bronze Division) and 9 years and under (Copper Division). As we have seen youngsters perform impressively at open events locally and internationally in recent times, organizers took the decision to accept juniors in senior divisions despite their age, allowing potential juniors to sharpen their talent at a higher level,” she said.
Speaking about the ‘HSBC Future Lions’ programme, SLGU Schools Golf Development Committee chairman Dirk Flamer Caldera said that they will conduct this programme between August 1 to 5 at four distant locations in the island, namely Nuwara Eliya, Kandy, Anuradhapura and Welisara (Navy Aqua Range) as one-day basic training sessions, aiming grassroot level (8 to 15 years) freshers who would like to take up to golf.
“The sessions will be conducted by a top notched junior coach, Anil Perera who is a US PGA qualified trainer. This is a very important programme as it will help popularize golf and pick talented golfers who will be the future golfing stars of Sri Lanka. We have invited government and international schools in close proximity to these regional venues and hopefully large number of students will participate in this introduction programme,” he explained.
The HSBC Head of Marketing and Communication, Tharanga Gunasekera revealed that they are very happy to be a part of this historic event as the bank plays a leading global role in promoting golf.
‘Golf is a fast growing sport around the world and we are committed in taking golf to masses. We like to see golf becoming everybody’s sport,” he said.
Cinnamon Life (Hospitality partner), MAS Kreeda (Apparel partner), Imorich by Elephant House, Olu tropical water and Callaway Golf (golf gear partner) support the event as co-sponsors.
Schools and parents can gather information about the events through tel. no. 0714327343 (Duminda) while the HSBC Premier clients can register through their respective relationship managers for events.
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