Mike, Ian, Imtiaz, Shanella soar highest in COPA Airlines’ inaugural Golf Tourney
The Copa Airlines inaugural tournament which took place on Saturday, January 25, saw Mike Mangal, Ian Gouveia, Imtiaz Subhan, and Shanella London excelling in their individual Flights under excellent weather and ground conditions at the Lusignan Golf Course.
In picture, winners pose with the sponsor. From left and in the front row: Hilbert Shields, Ian Gouveia, Shanella London, Mike Mangal, Eureka Giddings, Copa Sales Manager ‘Nadine Oudkerk, Joaan Deo, George Bulkan, Club Captain Chatterpaul Deo, and Avinash Persaud. In the back row: Copa Sales Executive Christopher Ferrell, Richard Haniff, David Harry, Imtiaz Subhan, Club President Aleem Hussain, and Maurice Solomon. Partly hidden in the middle were Bholawram Deo (with cap) and a young observer of the sport.
Club President Hussain expressed gratitude of the LGC to Copa Airlines, and praised them for their good corporate citizenship by their coming on board to be involved in promoting and developing golfing in Guyana. He was also appreciative that in addition to prizes to the first 3 winners in each of four Flights, Copa had generously provided a gift bag with meaningful tokens to each golfer that participated in the tournament.
In the separate Ladies flight, the winners were: former Guyana Open Ladies champion, Shanella London (67/14) – 1st; Eureka Giddings (69/29) – 2nd; and another former Guyana Open Ladies champion, Dr Joaan Deo (73/15) – 3rd. Curent Guyana Open Ladies champion, Christine Sukhram, and past Ladies Captain, veteran Ms Doreen DeCaires also participated and performed encouragingly.
Specialty prizes of Nearest The Pin was won by George Bulkan, and Longest Drive by Troy Cadogan.
Among the Gentlemen, in the 19-28 flight, winners were: young Imtiaz Subhan (71/19) – 1st; veteran Maurice Solomon (72/26) – 2nd; and veteran Bholawram Deo (74/19) – 3rd. Miguel Oviedo (77/24) and Jordi Pinol (77/27) came fairly close behind the winners.
In the extremely competitive 10 – 18 flight where the bulk of golfers fall, the scores testify to the intense jostle and rivalry for the winning spots. First 3 places went to left-handed champion Ian Gouveia (65/15) – 1st, who produced a fantastic overal best net score of 65; veteran David Harry (69/14) – 2nd; and past President, Hilbert Shields, (72/16) – 3rd. However 3rd place was obtained out of a tie by 4 persons – so Aasrodeen Shaw (72/13), Patanjilee ‘Pur’ Persaud (72/14) and Rabindranauth P)ersaud (72/16) were narrowly edged out by Hilbert. Ravi Harry (73/14), George Bulkan (74/16), Guillermo Escarraga (74/18), Andre Cummings (75/14), Rakesh Harry (75/14) and Pope-Emanuel London (75/18) were following very hard on the winners.
In the 0-9 flight, winners were: former Guyana Open champion, Mike Mangal (66/9) – 1st; reigning Guyana Open champion, Avinash Persaud (68/2) – 2nd; and veteran Richard Hanfff (73/9) – 3rd. Missing this flight’s winners row by only one or two strokes were Kassim Khan (74/9), Aleem Hussain (75/9) and Patrick Prashad (79/9). Avinash performed superbly by “parring” the Course, that is, taking 70 strokes to complete playing all 18 holes – a feat that few golfers achieve in their lifetime.
Copa Airline Sales Manager, Nadine Oudkerk, and team comprising Sales Executive, Christopher Ferrell and Counter Agent, Karen Mohamed, were on hand early to observe that the golfers were impressed with Copa and in fact produced very competitive scores in a very cordial atmosphere.
