Top class golf competition would return to the country when the 132nd Annual Sri Lanka Amateur Golf Championships gets underway in September.
The tournament, which is one of the oldest competitions in the world, conducted by the Sri Lanka Golf Union (SLGU), was scheduled to be held in February but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We are now planning to get the tournament underway during the first week of September either in Colombo or in Nuwara Eliya,” a top official from the SLGU told the Daily News yesterday.
“We are hoping that the COVID-19 situation would improve in the coming weeks so that all top golfers from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal could participate,” he added.
“Since golf is a low-risk sport, the Golf Union decided to resume competition in September but, the issue is with foreign participation in other virus affected countries.”
The SLGU Executive Committee has also decided to conduct the Men’s event separately followed by the Ladies’ tournament unlike in the previous years where both events were worked off simultaneously.
The Men’s title was won by U. Chanaka, while Tanya Minel Balasuriya clinched the Ladies’ title in last year’s tournament.
Meanwhile, according to the 2020 calendar of the SLGU, they are scheduled to conduct a total of 12 National Tournaments.
However, the SLGU has been able to conduct only one tournament so far, which is the Sri Lanka Junior Championship.
If the health situation in the country improves and competitions commence in September, the SLGU will plan to conduct the remaining tournaments before the end of December.
The Golf Union is also hoping to revive National Pool training, which was suspended temporarily at the earliest opportunity. The National Golf Pool of 20 comprises 16 Men and four Women.
The six professional golfers in the National Pool are - Mithun Perera (Colombo), Anura Rohana (Colombo), N. Thiyagaraj (Colombo), M. Prabakharan (Nuwara Eliya), Vijitha Bandara (Kandy) and Pradeep Kumara (Colombo).
The last international golf competition Sri Lanka had participated in was at the 13th South Asian Games (SAG), held in Kathmandu, Nepal.
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