Dhanaranjan,Taniya, Dhanushan,Yannik shine in regional junior golf – Kandy
G Dhanaranjan, fresh from winning the Victoria Junior Open Championship , on Saturday,went on to win back to back tournaments by winning the Gold division, of the Kandy Regional Junior open 2015 on Sunday.The lad a product of the Victoria Golf Club junior development squad faired brilliantly playing 3 under in the first day and 10 over par second day to close the tournament 7 over par. The second leg of the national junior regional golf tournament was worked off at the pictures Victoria Golf & Country Club where sixty juniors competed for top honoursplayed over two days under tough arid conditions. Also two other players from Kandy showed much maturity: S Flamin and S Sawmiyan who fared well in the tournament. However T Akash of Colombo took the runner up position in the Gold division playing steady golf over the two rounds, behind the winner by 5 shots. The Silver division was won by TaniyaMinel, Bronze division by K Dhanushan meanwhile Yannik Kumarathe divisional champion in Nuwara Eliya went on to win the Kandy regional in the most junior category Copper division.
In the Silver division first dayleader 14- year-old VinodWeerasinghecrumbled under pressure. TaniyaMinel went on to win the Silver division championship playing stylish golf on the second day with aggregate score of 165, followed by ImanSangani with aggregate score of 190 and Dilshan Malinda with aggregate score of 193.In the Bronze division the tussle was between LevonNiyerapola and K Dhanushan. However Dhanushan showed maturity to win by 6 shots. In the most junior category the Copper division stiff competition was evident. Yannik Kumara showed his class with scores of 34,35 over 9 holes and went on to win the division . Closely followed by NirekhTejwaniwith scores of 35, 37 and Harish Kressive with scores of 35, 45. We are likely to read much about Yannik in the future with beautiful swing play and mind power displayed for a nine year old. The juniors from Nuwara Eliya failed to take any wins in their first outing since the launch of the development program in the current year.
The championship was conducted by the Sri Lanka Golf Union with the support of Ceylon Agro Industries – promoters of Prima Sunrise Bread, Pro Golf (Pvt) Ltd along with Victoria Golf & Country Club host for the event. Sri Lanka Golf Union’svision of identifying talent in the country is taking shape with the development of junior golfers in the Kandy and Nuwara Eliya districtstaking place with the on going development programs in place. For the first time junior participation was evident from schools in the area. The bold step in introducing national regional open championships is to identify the young talent island wideto bring to the national squad level. It’s an initiative to foster talent regionally and talent scouting for national representation. The sponsor Prima Ceylon (Pvt) Ltd promoters of Prima Sunrise Bread was represented by Indika Dissanayake who was the guest of honour and awards were given by NeroyMarso General Manager, Victoria Golf & Country Club and club professional Pathmanathan.
Results
Gold Division
(under 18 yrs)
1. G. Dhanaranjan153, 2. T. Akash158, 3. S. Sawmiyan162, 4. S. Flamin 165
Silver Division
(under 15 yrs)
1. TaniyaMinel165, 2. VinodWeerasinghe172, 3.ImanSangani 190, 4.Dilshan Malinda193
Bronze Division
(under 12 yrs)
1. K. Dhanushan187, 2. LevonNiyerapola193, 3.T. Vikash 201, 4. HaroonAslam 202
Copper Division
(under 10 yrs)
1. Yannik Kumara69, 2. NirekhTejwani72, 3.HarishKressive 80, 4. M. Saran92