GOLF is is often regarded as an elitist exploit. There is the theory that it’s a game played by those with fat wallets, confined to the social and cocktail circuit.
This is surely an unfair indictment on a well respected sport. The game has a character and an ethos that any person can draw valuable lessons from. In Sri Lanka, as if to debunk the theory of exclusivity there has emerged some excellent golfers from outside the ‘usual circuit’.
And so, it was such a pleasure when golfer ANURA ROHANA put Sri Lanka on the map in Asian Golfing Circuit. Anura Rohana was the Asian Games Silver Medalist in 2002 who triumphed at the Bengalaru Open Golf Championships played at the Karanataka Golf Association Course fronting up with 125 top professional golfers contesting for the top prize including over 10 top Asian Professionals from India playing in their home country recently.
ROHANA’S style of play and the strategy he adopted on his way to this memorable victory hit the headlines thanks also to corporate sponsorship from ‘SOFTLOGIC LIFE’.
To quote ROHANA: ‘I am playing with much confidence thanks to my sponsor and the support extended to me by them. It allows me to play my game without looking over my shoulder trying to manage my tour cost including air fare.
‘it is necessary to mention that even after I won a Silver Medal for Sri Lanka it has been a struggle for me on the Professional Tour, until ‘SOFTLOGIC LIFE’ gave a life-changing opportunity to truly pursue my talent and skill as a Professional Golfer bringing credit to my country’.
ROHANA expressed his love to play on the Karnataka Golf Course in Bengalaru in India which he believes is the best course as the greens, bunker, fairways, tees are comparable to the best in the world and the course is long and challenging and the bold players can attack the pin without fear.
In Sri Lanka many leading business personalities take to the game as a way to maintain peak fitness before or after a hard day’s work in the office. Golf has become part and parcel of Business and Political life where the greens work magic on the minds of decision makers
The game also has many promising young and senior players vying for honours in the many tournaments played in the leading golf courses in the country – at Royal Colombo Golf Course, Diganna Victoria golf course and the Nuwara Eliya golf course.
In history of golf in the country, it has produced many men and women golfers who have in their own right brought honour to the game and country.
Of the many leading golfers the country has produced the name that hugged the limelight is that of the legendary W.Pin. Fernando who had no peer as a champion in the country. He had the knack of attracting spectators like moths to a flame when he walked the courses here and abroad. He was a truly great player. Many are the titles and trophies he won locally and internationally.
Other outstanding golfing products in the country were –MEN - Willie Barsenbach, K.Nandasena Perea, Pheroze Billimoria, Alain Gyi and F.J. de Saram, Dr. Chelliah. Thurairaja and Soli Caption. WOMEN golfers were – Rukmani Kodagoda, Pam Fernando, Yvonne Abhayaratne, Niloo Jayatilleke, Suvaneetha Selvaratnam, Suni Nirmaingam, Menik Thurairaja and Rosanne Flamer Caldera whose names come to mind.
As a reporter I was thrown into the woods as it were, when Eustace Rulach former Trinity College cricket captain and Sports Editor of the ‘Ceylon Observer’ asked me to follow the game. I ended up covering the 1964 Golf Nationals played at the Royal Colombo Golf Club.
I had met Rulach while playing school and club cricket and later covering club cricket for the ‘Times’. He was aware that I was also a school cricket captain like him and being on the same wave length when I walked into the RCGC and asked to be helped, he promptly took a scorecard and explained to me the elements that sounded something like a mix of English, Greek and birds and bees!
He taught me what a Bogey, Par, Birdie, Eagle, Albatross and Condor was. He also explained that a Caddie is a guy who is not regarded as a “cad” but as a wise and skilled person who knew which way the wind blew, which way the grass leaned, and which way the ball would travel depending on the club that was used! And more than anything else I recall he introduced me to the 19th hole in the 18 hole course!
And there he taught me , over drinks, an important lesson that has prompted me to bring Golf into this column this week. And lesson was that of HONESTY and INTEGRITY was the pivot on which the sport was built. That if one cheats that in the lexicon of Golf its worse than a crime
Such lofty ethics not only apply to the Game itself but to all Sports and to Business& Commerce and politics and life in general
And so as as Sports takes wing in this New Year, lets draw the lessons from Golf that teaches us to play straight.
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