Anel de Silva created history by becoming the oldest golfer to win the Royal Colombo Golf Club President’s Cup 2021 at the tournament held at the Ridgeways course last weekend.
De Silva aggregated a nett score of 135 over the two rounds of the stroke-play event. This gave him a substantial lead of five strokes over the runner-up Zhao Liang who had a nett score of 140.
Incidentally, Anel de Silva’s son Sachin won this coveted prize, the President’s Cup of 2008 played in 2009 at the tender age of 12-years to be the youngest to win this tournament.
Kudos to the De Silvas for their fantastic fete which perhaps will be etched in the history of the RCGC as a once-in-a-lifetime historic achievement by a father and son to win this event to date.
This tournament catered to players in the A, B and C divisions in the stroke-play format and off a maximum handicap of 18. The tournament attracted over 150 enthusiastic golfers at the beautifully curated RCGC golf course.
De Silva displayed some scintillating golf playing off a handicap of 16, masterfully navigating his way around the tough RCGC course to card a gross score of 80, nett score of 64 to be the number one seed player on the first day.
He was followed by professor Deepal Weerasekera (nett 65), Zhao Liang (nett 67), Zheng Ming (nett 67), Vinuda Weerasinghe (nett 69), Suhayb Sangani (nett 69), Yue Yeqing (nett 69), Andy Anderson (nett 70), defending champion Dr. Rohitha Silva (nett 70), Rohan Fernandez (nett 70), RCGC’s current president Ranil Peiris (nett 70) and Major General (Retd.) Jagath Gunawardena (nett 70) all strongly placed and showing contention.
RCGC’s current Captain Jehaan Ismail playing off a handicap of 16 carded a nett 67 to be the second day’s winner.
However, Anel de Silva playing off his new handicap of 14 reigned. Showing his deadly accuracy off the tee and deft touch around and on the greens, went about his second round with clinical precision and carded a gross 85, nett score of 71 after the second round of play and went on to win the prestigious President’s Cup 2021 with an overall nett score of 135 over the two rounds and a substantial lead of five strokes over the runner-up Zhao Liang who had an overall nett score of 140.
Results:
Overall Winner: Anel de Silva 64+71 = 135 Nett
Overall Runner-up: Zhao Liang 67+73 = 140 Nett
Overall Gross Winner: Husni Uwise 76+80 = 156 Gross
Master’s Division
Winner: VT Sundaralingam 71 Nett B/B 9
Runner-up: Sarath Liyanage 71 Nett
Senior’s Division
Winner: M. Fazeel 68 Nett
Runner-up: Nataraj Ramiah 72 Nett
Ladies Division
Winner: Sayeon Park 74 Nett
Runner-up: Anouk Chitty 76 Nett
1st Day Best Nett Winner: Anel de Silva 64 Nett
2nd Day Best Nett Winner: Jehaan Ismail 67 Nett