SAARC golf tourney on May 6 and 7

by S.M. Jiffrey Abdeen - Kandy Sports Correspondent

Victoria Golf and Country Resort nestling up in the Dumbara Valley in sylvan surroundings will host the Seventh SAARC Golf Championships which will be worked off at the picturesque Victoria Golf Course at Rajawella about 20 kilometres from the historic city of Kandy, on May 6th and 7th (Friday, Saturday) with the practice sessions on May 5th.

A total of seven countries in the SAARC region which will include India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Republic of Maldives, and Bhutan are expected to participate. A large of golfers are expected to compete in this prestigious tournament which is being held for the first time in Victoria since it was opened in 1997.

The Victoria golf course has been voted as the best golf course in the Indian Sub Continent by the Asian Golf Digest and has been designed by the renowned United Kingdom based golf architect Donald Steel in 1994. The land was once a Dutch farm and later a coconut plantations and Donald Steel had to work around misty mountains and natural rock formations in a environment that is home to 70 species of birds, 3 types of deer, mongoose, fishing cats.

Victoria Golf and Country Resort which was launched as the Victoria Golf Club around nine years has successfully in the past organised major tournaments such as SriLankan Golf Classics, Donaldn Steeel Golf Championships. Ppsi Challenge, Milo Mini Junior Championshipe, SriLankan Cargo golf Championship. All India Golf Championship and the Lectra Golf Championships in addition to many other weekly Stableford Championships.

The organising ability of the club come in for much praise and the organising team will include Director/ General Manager - Tony Witham, Club Secretary Steffan de Run, CEO Priath Fernando, Marketing Manager Lalindra Ranaweera, Caddie Master Peter perera, Course Manager Maheel Bulumulla, Chalets Manager Susie Dias, Carl Kelaart and many others.

The Victoria Golf Course measures 6845 yards at its full championship length, the course's Par 73 lay out has five Par 5 holes of which three are over 500 yards long. There are four excellent Par three holes ranging from the very short, but tricky 4th of 116 yards, to the harder 210 yards 12th hole. In the words of Donald Steel "Victoria is just not a good Gold Course within the realms of Sri Lanka - it is a fine Golf Course in a world context.

Golfers who come over to play at Victoria have always fallen in love with the setting and have vowed to come back with their friends as evidenced in the Visitors books. International cricketers and VVIPS visiting the hill capital have now made it a permanent feature to include a visit to the Victoria Golf Course in their itinerary.

Victoria has in over the years increased its facilities, it has chalets for the golf tourists, swimming pool, tennis court, Mountain bike rides, restaurant and bar facilities. It can be reached by both road and air and two star-class hotels - namely Earls Regency and Mahaweli Reach Hotel are located in close proximity.

The SriLankan Airlines operates a air taxi service using the Cessna Amphibian aircraft which can land on the waters of the Victoria reservoir which borders the golf course. The float planes would take just 30 minutes to travel from the Katunayake International Airport to Victoria and on its path of flight providing the passengers with spectacular views from the beach to the hilly country.

With the rains experienced in the Victoria area, there has been luxuriant growth of grass and this has been immaculately trimmed and maintained by the Course staff and offers the golfers a big challenge. The fairways have been neatly maintained and in the trim condition. Thus the golfers from the SAARC Region are in for two days of exciting golf.