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Dr. Thurai wins Hitachi Golf Classic
A lavish sponsorship by Singer Sri Lanka kicked off the first of the events on the golf calendar of the 125th Year celebrations of the Royal Colombo Golf Cub last Saturday. A record 210 enthusiastic golfers teed off but most strutted and stumbled and lost their way on a course with subtle traps by the new ground secretary Nirmal Hettiarachchi.

A Division
Former champ Dr. Thurairajah returned to winning ways by playing near regulation golf to win this division with a better back nine from Tissa Jayasinghe who claimed that most of his putts curled around the cup and incredibly hung on the lip.

Scotman Stewardt Ritchie playing off a low 2 handicap was masterly with his irons to end with the lowest gross score of 75. Burly Arshad Ahamed seemed unstoppable at one stage but then lost concentration, double bogeyed twice and finished with a net 71.

B Division
Ex-Tennis Ace Suresh Subramanium was in sparkling form with accuracy off the tee and calculated approaches. His net 66 bagged this division from a regular winner, the in form Sheron Fernando who makes full use of his height to hit the ball long. T. Komenoi, Chanaka Perera, S. Sugaira and Rathvan de Livera all played to their handicaps whilst Michael "Adonis" Dias burnt the better part of the course but then fatigue overcome him on the home stretch and he finished with a net 71. He celebrated his return to form late into the evening and was last seen looking lost in the car park.

C Division
15 year old Dushan Jacobs pipped Ajith Dissanayake to this division with a better back nine and a net 63. Close on their heels were CP Rayen, John Attygalle. Gerard Amarasinghe and Dr. SAK Abayawardene all with sub rounds. Lester Weiman brandishing an anormous driver and a grin to match finished net 70 as did young Sanjay Jayawardene.

KB Ambanpola bagged the seniors division from the evergreen Joe Perera and both received loud applause at the awards ceremony. SM Bang won the award for the best score on the Par 3s whilst Deanath Kulatunge 6 iron on the 29th hole drifted towards the pin, checked and stopped 2 feet away. He won himself a Hitachi Colour TV for his effort.

Of the national Pool players N. Amarapathma played a 5 under gross 66 to beat Lalith Kumara who finished with a 3 under 68. Over 50 players notched up hundreds. The ponds seemed to cause involuntary muscle spasms and almost magically their most well intentioned shot seemed to find surrounding foliage. Guilty of considerable eco-damage were Radesh Daluwatte, Rajan Joseph, Anup Kundanmal, Raju Chandiram, Elmo de Silva, Vinod Hidramani, Anura Gunasekera, Chandana de Silva, and Joseph Kenny whilst Dr. Suranjan de Silva, Gehan de Silva, Amal Cabraal, Surath Wickremasinghe Upali Silva and Norman Chandraratne in reality spoilt what could have been a pleasant morning walk.

The awards ceremony conducted by The captain of RCGC Kumar Boralessa and Vice Captain Elmo de Siva together with Asita Abeysekere the Marketing Director of Singer was followed by a glitzy function at the club house that night. A magnificent array of electronic and other prizes were very generously distributed by Asita on behalf of Singer Sri Lanka who deserve a hurray for a splendid job.

Juk Joseph combined superbly with Gayan de Silva to dovetail all the arrangements for the day and they deserve accolades.

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