Perera crushes Captain in RCGC championship final

Sri Lanka’s top amateur golfer, 19-year-old Mithun Perera played excellent golf to emerge the winner of the 2006 Royal Colombo Golf Club Championship when he defeated defending champion Rusi Captain 7 and 5 in the final at the Ridgeway course yesterday.

Playing consistent golf the young Mithun Perera finished off in the 13th hole when he was 7 up and Captain having conceded the win in the match-play event.

The final that was scheduled to be played over 36 holes had to be reduced to 18 holes with the course being closed on Saturday due to heavy wet conditions. Thus the semi-finals was played in the morning with Mithun Perera beating another young player in Binupa Wijesinghe 3 and 2 while Rusi Captain played well to beat the seasoned Stewart Ritchie 4 and 3.

However, Captain did not play well in the afternoon and began the first hole in the final by missing an easy two foot putt.

Perera went 2up at the second hole but Captain won the third hole when Perera missed an easy putt to bogey.

Perera then came back strongly to birdie the sixth and seventh holes to go 3up. He again won the tenth and eleventh holes with birdies and went 5up and Captain went out of bounds in the 12th hole and bogied the 13th to concede the match to Perera.

The day’s event finished with the grand prize distribution and dinner in the evening.