By Rahul Banerji
India’s junior golfers came away with a rich haul from the Singapore Junior Golf Championship that concluded on Thursday with one individual title, one team crown, a shared bronze, and another third place finish from the event at the island’s Keppel Club course.
Aryan Roopa Anand of Bangalore emerged as the overall boys champion in the three-day event ahead of Singapore’s Sean Lee and Poon Jia Hao of Malaysia. Aryan’s three-day total of 222 (74, 70, 78) was two shots better than the local challenger and seven ahead of Malaysia’s Poon.
The Indian Golf Union-fielded team had further success as Aryan and Arjun Bhati teamed up to win the boys team event as India B, totaling 307 were finally well ahead of the Malaysian Golf Association (Marcus Lim/Nor Harith Nor Hadi, 311) and the National Golf Association of the Philippines (Masachi Otake/John Edward Dy, 312) teams.
More rewards
A third medal came when Khushi Hooda and Hunar Mittal were tied for third place in the girls Category B (13-14 years) individual competition with Singapore’s Angel Lim and Jilian Kuk Jia Lin taking the top two spots.
The effort saw Khushi and Hunar claim the second runners-up place in the team competition on 315 behind the MGA (Ashley Goh/Ashkey Chin, 305) and Singapore Golf Accociation A (Shang Yu/Angel Lim, 307) squads.
Khushi also had the day’s best gross round award one day one of the competition in the girls 12-14 years event
Aryan, who trains under Tarun Sardesai of Bangalore, had a total of eight birdies in his three rounds. On the second day his card of 70 also fetched the day’s best gross award in the boys 15-17 category.
Clean round
On the final day, he had a blemish-free round with 14 pars in a row but a late stumble with two bogeys and two doubles dented his card somewhat.
In the final analysis, it was still good enough for him to land the gold medal ahead of Sean Lee, who was two shots behind.
Said Aryan’s coach on Instagram while first posting about his ward at Tarun Sardesai Golf, “The team has worked hard with him over the past few years when the top spot has eluded him many times on the National Junior Circuit.
“Great for his first win to be an international one.”
Added Sardesai when contacted, “Aryan has been working with me since the age of 10 and his desire to be the best only increases each year.
“It’s been a great journey with him so far and with this win and his renewed confidence, we can expect great things from him in the future.”
Also read: Anika Varma punches her USGA girls’ championship ticket
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