… Deo is new female champion

ONCE again and for the fifth time, Avinash Persaud adorned himself in glory, when he dethroned his younger brother and defending champion Avinder Kishore to take the top prize in this year’s second annual Digicel Open Golf Classic which culminated at the Lusignan Golf Course yesterday.

Persaud had a net 140 and gross 144 to come away victorious, adding the title of Digicel Open champion to the long list of accolades in his career, which also included Guyana Open championship honours in 2006, 2007, 2010 and 2012.
On the distaff side, defending champion Christine Sukhram’s long reign came to an end, thanks to the superb efforts of her nemesis Joann Deo who finished with a 67 and gross 87, to take the top prize.
Shanella Webster (72/94) and Sukhram (74/83) rounded off the top three positions in the female category, which saw four entrants among the 64 competitors who contested the two-day affair, which teed off in windy conditions last Saturday and had two rain interruptions during the first day’s play.
In the Male 0-9 flight, Avinash Persaud had the Best Net with his 140 having shot 72 on the first day and 68 in yesterday’s second day of play, with Rishi Sukhram second with 146 (69 and 77) and Kishore third with 147 (71 and 76).
In the gross, Avinash Persaud totaled 144 (74 and 70), Kishore was second with 153 (79 and 74) and Denville Phillips third.
In the 10 to 18 flight, Mo Shaffie (136), Seepaul Suknanan (137) and Roy Cummings (140) had the three best net, while Suknanan (157), Cummings (160) and Lakram ‘Panco’ Ramsundar (165) had the three best gross.
For the 19 to 28 flight, the best three net scores were recorded by Mahendra Bhagwandin (132), Patanjalee ‘Pur’ Persaud (136) and Parmanand Persaud (141), with Parmanand Persaud (183), Bhagwandin (184) and Richard Haniff (187) taking the top three positions in the gross.
In the female category, Deo netted 141, followed by Webster with 146 and Sukhram with 149 while for the Gross, Sukhram was first with 167 followed by Deo (181) and Webster (190) and for the Nearest to the Pin on the first day, Thakur Chitram was the winner with Colin Ming taking such honours on the second day.
Kishore was also the winner of the Longest Drive in the competition with Webster taking such honours in the Female category.
The presentation ceremony was witnessed by Digicel’s Marketing Manager Jacqueline James, Head of Sales Nalini Vieira, Customer Service Head Sherwin Osborne and Sponsorship and Events Manager Gavin Hope.
Prior to the presentation of the various prizes along with the Digicel ‘Red Jacket’ to Avinash Persaud and Deo, Club president David Mohammed thanked the sponsor for their support to golf, while he showered praise on the hard-working executives of the Club especially Chatterpaul ‘Chen’ Deo.
The two-day event was divided up further into a first half and a second half. In the first half, 8 groups play one after the other at 15-minute intervals between starts, with another group teeing off when the first half is nearly finished play, with the second half of the game starting with the other 8 groups in the same time arrangement.

(By Calvin Roberts)