Three golfers including a woman have been invited to participate in the Asia Pacific golf Championships to be held in Dubai and Abu Dhabi respectively in November. The men’s championship will be held in Dubai from November 1 to 5 while the women’s championship will be held in Abu Dhabi from November 7 to 14.
The two men golfers are Vinod Weerasinghe and MU Chanaka Perera while the woman golfer will be Tania Balasuriya who have won in local tournaments consistently and are in the ranking system of the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR). Thus they have been invited to participate without hesitation.
They will play in the first two rounds to qualify for the final cut of 60 players. These 60 players will play in the final round over two days.
Sri Lanka Golf (SLG) will be looking after their interests and will arrange with the Victoria Golf and Country Club golf course in Digana for these players to practice under strict health guidance. They will also be subject to vaccination against Covid during this period.
Meanwhile, the SLG will pick a development squad and the national pool players after completing their trials in December after it was stalled midway due to the lockdowns.
SLG will also be looking to obtain a foreign coach, said the secretary of SLG Lal Wickrematunga. At the same time they will request all golf clubs to encourage women and school children to take to the game.
“All players will be ranked according to their handicap and performances in local and foreign tournaments. Their ranking will be submitted to the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR) for recording purposes and their ranking will be given when they participate in foreign tournaments. All golf courses are given ratings, depending on how difficult the course is according to the placements of sand traps, water pools and bunkers in the course. Their handicap will vary in accordance to these ratings,” said Wickrematunga.
There is also a World Handicap System which comes into effect along with the Slop Rating of the course that will rate the players handicap before the start of a tournament on that course. This system is applicable worldwide and every player will be handicapped according to their current handicap before the start of any tournament according to Wickrematunga.