The Pin Fernando Trophy introduced in the Centenary Year of the Royal Colombo Golf Club to felicitate the Legendary Amateur Golfer Pin Fernando, celebrates 41 years of unbroken competition since 1979.
Sachin De Silva playing off a scratch handicap being Ranked 10, in the automatic qualifier draw, played exceptional Golf in the Match-play stage to defeat Reza Magdon Ismail, Captain of the RCGC W A K Shiran Fernando, Rajeev Rajapaksa of Tennis fame and Ronan Hall the Royal Colombo Club Championship Runner-up in the Final quite comfortably 3 & 2.
Ronan Hall Ranked 5 in the automatic qualifier draw beat Nilkamal Perera, Radesh Daluwatte and veteran Sportsman Ranil Peiris, to reach the final. However, Ronan receiving 5 strokes had no answer to some brilliant Golf by Sachin who fired 4 Birdies, three of them on holes where Ronan received strokes and Ronan’s single Birdie was no match in the final presenting a comfortable victory to Sachin de Silva.
Sachin is a worthy winner of the Pin Fernando Trophy, having been the Club Champion of RCGC, NEGC and VGCR, now adds a first win in this prestigious annual challenge to his victory collection. Sachin joins a top band of Golfers who have won the Pin Fernando Trophy over the 40 years that include the Legendary Late K Nandasena Perera, Mithun Perera, Pheroze Billimoria, Alain Gyi, Arjun & Arvind Fernando, Sarath Wickremaratne, Ranil Pathirana and Priath Fernando among others. In the last two years youngsters Vinod Weerasinghe and Armand Flamer Caldera have won the trophy and Sachin stands tall as the winner of the Pin Fernando Trophy in its’ 41st year.
The Pam Fernando Trophy remembering the Lady in the Guinness Book of Records being the Oldest to Win a National Championship in any Sport, stimulated some sensational Golf among the strongly contested field. Anouk Chitty played some exceptional Golf to overcome the Second Ranked Dr. Pravina Dunuwila in a thrilling final on the second sudden-death hole the 20th.
Anouk was comfortably 2 up playing the 16th hole but the determined Dr. Pravina fought back to be All-square after the 18th and forced a sudden-death play-off! The 19th Hole was a script from a movie, when Anouk holed out from the Bunker for a Birdie 4 in the Ladies Par 5, to halve the hole with Pravina making Birdie with a stroke. The 20th sealed Anouk’s victory with Pravina mishitting out of bounds and giving Anouk Chitty a famous victory in the Pam Fernando Trophy in its’ 5th year.
The format followed for the Pin Fernando Trophy illustrates the skill of the Late Pin Fernando being a Scratch Golfer and an amazing Match-player who has won the Royal Colombo Club Championship 19 times and the Amateur Championship of Sri Lanka on 10 occasions, both being played in the Match-play format.
In the early years of the Pin Fernando Trophy, 32 qualifiers made it to the Match-play knock-out stage and after a grueling test to qualify the Winner would have to win five matches to annex the trophy.
After 40 consecutive years of competition, currently 16 qualify for the knock-out stage and the match-play format provides the thrills and misses of the game emphasizing the excitement of man- to- man combat for supremacy.
The solemn Prize giving ceremony followed the outstanding Finals, and the Royal Colombo Golf Club Captain W A K Shiran Fernando speaking on the occasion thanked the sponsors for sponsoring the traditional Pin Fernando Trophy for 41 continuous years. Captain RCGC gave away the Pin Fernando & Pam Fernando Trophies to the Winners.
UTE Sponsors of the prestigious event was represented by CEO Mr. Deepthi Hewageegana, General Manager New Customer Sales UTE Mr. Janak Edirisinghe, Chief Marketing Officer UTE Ms. Anusaya Gunasena and Mr Priath Fernando Director UTE who gave away the many prizes. Mr. Priath Fernando speaking on behalf of the Sponsors thanked the RCGC for the excellent arrangements for the tournament and congratulated the Winners on the excellent Golf played.
PIN FERNANDO TROPHY 2019
- WINNER: Sachin De Silva 3 & 2
- Runner-up: Ronan Hall
PAM FERNANDO TROPHY 2019
- WINNER: Anouk Chitty 20th
- Runner–up: Dr. Pravina Dunuwila
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