SUVA golfer Olaf Allen Jr won his first Fiji Amateur Championship when he took out the Srixon Cleveland-sponsored at the Fiji Golf Club yesterday.
Allen made a good start to the event with a magnificent 8 under par to lead with 136 heading into yesterday's competition where he finished with an overall gross of 211.
He said he had been either coming second or third in the event for the past six years.
"This win has kick started my year and it's an honor and a pleasure to have finally won the title that had eluded me for the past six years," Allen said.
"It was an interesting tournament, lot of good competition," he said.
He said in the final 18 holes yesterday, he did not do as well as day one but managed to hold on for the win.
"I didn't do so well on day two but all the hard work had been done on day one.
"I managed to get a good lead after a good performance on day one and day two was different but it all worked out for me in the end," Allen said.
Abid Hussein was the first runner on the overall gross followed by Amitesh Chandra.
The overall nett was won by Praneel Prakash who managed to hold off stiff competition from Roneel Prakash and N Goudan who were placed second and third respectively.
Fiji Golf Club vice president Mahmood Buksh said they had a total of 54 starters for the event which was a slight increase from past years.
Fiji National Golf president Sitiveni Rabuka was also present at the prizegiving yesterday and he said they were expecting a good year for the sport.
"Today (yesterday) we also gave the western bodies some money to help them with rehabilitation work on their facilities after the cyclone earlier this year," Rabuka said.
"The money was a part of the sum we had requested from the International Golf Federation."