Vijitha Bandara secures victory at home course
The Top Five finishers with the tournament organisers
The Sri Lanka Golf Ranking Golf Tournament, conducted monthly together as trials for the selection of the Asian Games golf team, concluded at the Victoria Golf Resorts Course (VGRC), with Vijitha Bandara, a home-grown professional golfer playing in the PGTI, holding on to a slender one stroke victory over M.U. Chanaka Perera, the 2021 Sri Lanka National Amateur champion.
Bandara’s four round gross total of 298, six over par, doesn’t give a sound reading compared with the standard of golf expected to win medals at the Asian Games but the field at VGRC for the March Ranking Tournament was played sans the top Sri Lankan professionals currently playing in the PGTI tour.
Perera just one stroke adrift of the winner Bandara was three strokes clear of third placed M.H. Chalitha Pushpika of Sri Lanka Navy. The Victoria Golf Resorts course played long as there was continuous rain and soft ground underfoot, making conditions quite difficult to score. In the circumstances Chanaka Perera’s 5 under par 68 in the second round was the outstanding performance of the tournament which put him into the lead and held on to win.
Finishing at fourth is Uchitha Ranasinghe, who is five strokes behind the leader, followed by Priya Hemantha, G. Danaranjan, Yannik Kumara, Vinodh Weerasinghe, Husni Uvaiz and R.M.S. Rupasinghe among the Top 10. The reading after four rounds is indicated as 292 according to Asian Games standads,
and leader Bandara is six strokes behind the requirement.