Spotlight on Ashok, Rohana

DHAKA, JANUARY 19: There were more questions asked about the Indian team which won the inaugural SAARC Golf championships in Bangalore, th...

DHAKA, JANUARY 19: There were more questions asked about the Indian team which won the inaugural SAARC Golf championships in Bangalore, than about the golfers who have lined for this year’s Bharat Petroleum sponsored championships. The reasons are obvious: Not only were the rival teams somewhat circumspect about the squad India was fielding this time, but also the keenness to know how those `three’ had performed in their rookie year as pros. After all it could be some kind of an indicator to what the future holds for them.

With all the teams in attendance, the championships were officially inaugurated this evening by Lt Gen Muhammad Mustafizur Rahman, Chief of the Army Staff in Bangladesh.

The unsure Rohana, one of the brightest amateur prospects in the sub-continent, says, “I know about the rewards pro golf has, but in Sri Lanka, there are no pros I can see as examples. There was one Nandasena Perrera, but with problems of arthritis, he is no longer the force he was.”

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Yet, no sooner had his teamlanded here, the Lankan lad who dreams of coming to the Indian Tour as a pro and then, maybe graze onto the greener pastures of the Asian PGA Tour, was checking out possibilities of getting some invites to the Indian Tour.

That dream apart, Rohana, and his teammates, Tissa Chandradasa and Lalitha Kumara, are smarting under the narrow defeat they suffered last year. Rohana, with two identical rounds of 70 each, topped the individual scores after two rounds to become the first SAARC individual champion, but when it mattered most in the match-play final against Indians, Rohana lost to Amish Jaitha on the 17th.