Anura Rohana wins RCGC Open for record eighth time
(Left to right) - Navin de Silva (RCGC Vice Captain), Pradeep Moraes (Director, Indocean Developers), winner Anura Rohana, first runner-up N. Thangaraja, second runner-up Mithun Perera, Shiran Fernando (RCGC Captain), Mumtaz Niyasdeen (Head of Business Development, Indocean Developers) and Sanjiv Vairavanathan (RCGC President)
Sri Lanka’s top golfer Anura Rohana clinched the RCGC Altair Open Championship for the record eighth time—a feat no other golfer has done in the annals of country’s golfing history. He was deadlocked on seven titles with late golfing legend Nandasena Perera before annexing his eighth title.
Many past winners vied for honours but the former Asian Games silver medalist Rohana asserted his superiority, winning by a comfortable 4 strokes from N. Thangaraja (twice winner) and Mithun Perera last year winner, a further 3 strokes behind in 3rd place. G P Sisira Kumara took 4th place to be the Top Amateur Golfer in the field ahead of a few other Professionals in the competitive field of 64, where the top 20 cut-off was implemented after 2 rounds.
The RCGC Open inaugurated in 1970, by the Royal Colombo Golf Club has being the platform to discover the immense talent available outside the ‘elite’ membership of the Golf Club, and the first Champion H.L Premadasa too came from the Caddy ranks living over the third hole wall ‘Kithulwatte’.
Many Champions were found through the RCGC Open and K. Nandasena Perera set the bench mark by breaking the RCGC Course Record in 1983 when he fired a 63 Eight Under Par) to win the RCGC Open in canter and Nandasena won the RCGC Open a record 7 times before going on to win the silver medal for Sri Lanka at the Beijing Game in 1990.
Three Asian Games on, in 2002 R A Anura Rohana bursts on the scene winning silver for Sri Lanka at the Busan Asian Games. Anura Rohana was ready to take the mantle as Nandasena eased in to retirement through injury. Rohana firstly broke Nandsena’s RCGC Course record when he fired a 61 (10 under par) which is still standing at the RCGC! Then Rohana equaled Nandasena’s record of seven wins. Ironically, the year that Nandasena Perera moved on to the next sojourn earlier this year, Anura Rohana wins the RCGC Open for the record eighth time and now holds the record on his own.