– Sukhram remains queen of the fairway
By Avenash Ramzan
Eighteen-year-old Avinda Kishore made a stunning comeback on the final day to clinch top honours in the Championship Flight (0-9 handicap) on Sunday when the Digicel Guyana Open golf tournament concluded at the Lusignan Golf Course, East Coast Demerara.
The indomitable Christine Sukhram maintained her stranglehold on the Ladies Flight (0-36), landing her eighth consecutive Guyana Open title, while Roy Cummings and Esau Shamshudin won the B Flight (10-18) and C Flight (19-28) respectively.
At the end of the first day on Saturday, 18-year-old Kishore was nowhere in the reckoning, as his brother and defending champion Avinash Persaud and New York’s Jaipaul Suknanan shared the top spot on gross 75 and Mike Mangal next with gross 76.
However, “Ganguly”, as Kishore is popularly known, played brilliantly on the final day to cop his maiden Guyana Open title with Suknanan and Mangal failing to build on their momentum from the opening day.
The championship came down to a three-way battle among Kishore, Persaud and Patrick Prashad, but it was the young Kishore, who held his nerves to win by the slim margin of two shots. He finished with gross 151, while Prashad took second spot ahead of Persaud on a countback after both ended with gross 152.
Prashad had the best net (137) in the Championship Flight, with Mangal (138) and Kishore (141) occupying second and third respectively.
Meanwhile, the 24-year-old Sukhram was unstoppable in the Ladies’ flight, carting off yet another title she has made her own since 2006. She had a net 136, winning by quite a distance from Shanella Webster (144) and Joann Deo (150). Sukhram also recorded the best gross of 156, leaving Deo (194) and Webster (210) to settle for second and third respectively.
In the B Flight, Cummings managed gross 162 to win ahead of Lakram Ramsundar (170) and Colin Ming (173). Cummings also had the best net (140), with Jerome Khan (142) and Mike Guyadin (142) rounding out the top three.
Shamshudin copped the C Flight on a countback against K.M. Chung of Suriname. Both ended with gross 187, while Paton George took third.
George had the best net of 147, with Shamshudin again pipping Chung for second spot after both ended with 149.
At the presentation ceremony which followed, Kishore and Sukhram, both of Lusignan, were presented with the Guyana Open trophies and the Digicel Red Jacket.
Apart from receiving one year free membership from the Lusignan Golf Club, the two champions were rewarded for their efforts by fellow villager Lakram Ramsundar, who has committed to sponsoring the airfare for Kishore to play in any Open tournament overseas, while Sukhram received a cash award.
The Lusignan Golf Club also used the opportunity to induct former Guyana and West Indies batsman and cricket administrator, Joe Solomon, as a life member of the club. At 84, Solomon was the oldest player to participate in the two-day tournament.
Speaking on behalf of Digicel, head of marketing, Jacqueline James, expressed her company’s delight to partner with the Lusignan Golf Club for the first time sponsoring the Guyana Open.
She made a commitment to the 2014 tournament, noting that Digicel is enthused by the high number of young players who competed in the championship. The tournament attracted 74 golfers from Guyana, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Canada and the U.S.A., and was the largest-ever in over three decades of its existence.
