Arshvant leads at USKG Malaysian C’ships as Indians shine

By Rahul Banerji

Noida’s Arshvant Srivastava blazed his way to the day’s best card in the Boys 13-14 age category in round one of the US Kids Malaysian Championships on Tuesday.

It underlined a strong display from the seven-member Indian squad at the Glenmarie Golf and Country Club.

While Arshvant led his group with a 3-under 69, four other Indians were in the top three of their categories, USKG said.

The three-day event at Shah Alam near Kuala Lumpur carries WAGR points and grants priority points for entry into US Kids World Championships and European Championships later in the year.

Fourteen-year-old Arshvant, who was accompanied by his coach Amit Dubey fired five birdies against two bogeys on the 6,256-yard course. Arshvant birdied holes two, six, nine, 13 and 17 while bogeying eight and 18.

Srivastava led Koreans Woosung Sun (73) and Geon Kang (74) by four and five shots respectively.

Two other Indians in the same group, Sohang Har Kantor (79) and Ved Sai Machiraju (85) were T7 and T14 respectively.

Challenging displays

In the Boys 8 and under, Divjot Gupta (40) held second place behind Clifton Michael Lumy of Indonesia (39) while another Indian Ruslaan Alam Khan (44) was third.

Jot Sarup Gupta (77) was second four shots behind leader Aaron Zhang of China (73) in the Boys 10 and under.

In the Girls 13-14 category Kriti Parekh was second with an 83 behind Wang Enxi (76).

A total of 106 juniors from 16 countries, including 37 players from Malaysia, are competing in the three-day tournament.

The Malaysian Championship is the first regional nationals under the US Kids umbrella in Asia this year. It will be followed by events in Thailand, Singapore and India. 

Also read: Seven Indians to line up at US Kids Golf Malaysia Championship