Adit, Chaitanya, Jot, Amaira maintain streak at US Kids Golf India

By Rahul Banerji

Adit Veeramachaneni and Chaitanya Pandey continued to dominate their age groups at US Kids Golf India tournaments with wins on Thursday.

The two also won their age category events at the US Kids Golf Indian Championship, which also had WAGR points.

Adit, the only player to shoot under par on the day, won the Boys 9 title and Chaitanya won the Boys 11 segment.

Another player sweeping his section this season has been Jot Sarup Gupta (Boys 8) who added a fifth domestic title to the Indian Championship title.

Manyaveer Bhadoo also won a fifth straight title in Boys 15-18.

Kabir Goyal (Boys 7) who had stunned the field with three straight under-par rounds at the Indian Championship came close to shooting another under-par round on Thursday.

Kabir made a great recovery in the last three holes with an eagle and a closing birdie to finish at one-over. He earlier dropped four shots between the third and fifth holes.

The girls’ section saw Lucknow golfer Amaira Gulati (Girls Under-8) register her fourth domestic win besides the Indian Championship last month.

She shot a four-over 40 in the nine-hole competition and edged out Gairat Kaur Kahlon (41) by one stroke.

Second win

Coonoor’s Kriti Parekh who won the Girls 11-12 Indian Championship grabbed her second domestic title with a four-over 76.

Kriti beat her arch-rival Shambhavi Chaturvedi (78), who had won three of the four previous domestic events.

Naina Kapoor (79) added a fourth domestic title at the US Kids Golf India, while Myra Kumar (83) had her maiden success in the Girls 13-14.

The sixth and final leg of the US Kids Indian Tour, which carries double points, is the last chance for players to gain status and priority to qualify for the World Championship and the European Championships in 2023.

Only a win will not suffice as the player’s scores, which need to be par or better in at least two rounds, will also be taken into consideration.

Solid display

Adit had a superb four-under 68 in the Boys-9 segment, while Chaitanya Pandey despite the win would have been disappointed with his 5-over 77.

Pandey had four birdies but dropped nine shots with seven bogeys and one double. He had just five pars in an action-packed round.

Two other boys who came with good winning scores were Sohang Har Kantor, who shot an even par 72 in the Boys 12 and Udai Aditya Middha who went one over 73 in the Boys 13-14.

Vidit Aggarwal, who won the Indian Championship, but had not won a domestic leg, took his first success in the Boys 10 section with a round of 77.

Samar Singh won the Boys Under-6 title.

A total of 53 players took part in the event and most of them will be back for the sixth and final leg on Friday.

Also read: Young achievers set for final two legs of US Kids Golf India tour