Persaud, Deo are champions of Digicel Guyana Open Golf Classic

By Delvon McEwan

After two successful days of golf in Guyana’s premier golf challenge, the Digicel Guyana Open Golf Classic, at the Lusignan Golf Course it was Avinash Persaud and Joann Deo, who were named champions of the eight edition of the tournament on Sunday.

Persaud reign continues for a third successive year and seventh overall while Deo grabbed her second title after being clinched by Shaunella Webster last year.
The male champion, who is also a ground staff at the course and has efficient knowledge of the venue, finished with a gross of 76 on the second day to go with his 74 gross on day one. On day one he had the best gross while on day two he finished behind Suriname’s Ridel Doekoe, who ended with a gross of 74 and in third position after competing over the two days.
Trailing Persaud in second was Munaf Arjune, who had two good days but fell short of dethroning Persaud;  Arjune’s gross score was 79 on the second day.
Meanwhile, in the females category where the champion was selected from their net aggregate, Deo led the way with a net of 67 on day one  and 71 on day two. It was a close finish between her and last year’s champion Shanella Webster (second), who had net scores of 65 and 73 respectively over the two days.  The Guyanese were followed by Myung Ja Kim in a near third after nets of 71 on day one and 77 on day two.
The two day event was the largest on local soil as it attracted 84 golfers of which more than 40 came from overseas-Suriname, Canada and United States of America.
Apart from the Guyanese dominance the Surinamese made an impact with finishes in the top three in both the males and females division.
Speaking at presentation ceremony, Chief Executive Officer of Digicel Kevin Kelly, said it was great to see the number of participants in this event as it is a pleasure to be associated with the event since his entity is traditionally associated with cultural and sporting events, especially for the youths.
Director of Sport Christopher Jones, immediately congratulated the Club for being in existence for 12 years and recognized the infrastructure at the club and it has been kept in prestige condition, unfortunately the same could not be said about the access road to the club but work is in process so hopefully next year the road structure would match the quality of the club.
In addition he congratulated the winners and sponsors, before stating that it is important to recognize those corporate companies that are giving back to the development of Guyana. “This is part of what I continue to say to my administration, that it is important to recognize those corporate companies that are giving back to the development of Guyana via sport and so forth and as such they must be shown the reciprocity of their investment whether it be through tax waivers, tax exemption, tax holidays, among others to encourage them to lend support to the development of sport……”, Jones detailed.
Besides prizes for the top three finishers in the male and female categories, there were 27 other prizes which included trophies for longest drive, nearest to the pin, best net and best gross.