By Rahul Banerji
Mahreen Bhatia and Kartik Singh were once again the star performers in the Indian contingent at the US Kids World Teens Championships at Pinehurst on Friday.
Playing in the Girls 14 and in the Boys 13 respectively, Mahreen shared first place and Kartik was fourth after 36 holes of play.
Mahreen climbed to the top of the leaderboard with another fine performance at Pinehurst on Friday. The Gurgaon golfer, in third place after round one, carded a second straight 3-under 69 to take a share of the lead with American Maria Isabella Errichetto (68-70).
Mahreen and Isabella are now 6-under for two rounds with 18 holes to go.
In the Boys 13, Kartik Singh stayed on track for a solid finish as he added a 1-under 71 to his first-round score and moved to 4-under 140, four shots behind overnight leader, Thailand’s Ajalawich Anantasethakul (65-71).
Canadian Joseph Totino (70-67) is second and American Rory Asselta (67-71) third.
Good start
Mahreen, who was second at the US Kids European Championships, birdied the third, seventh, eighth and 15th holes to be 4-under at that stage without any bogeys.
She dropped two late but birdied once in between to finish on 69. A win at Pinehurst will cap a wonderful year for Mahreen.
Kartik, winner of the FCG Callaway World Junior 2023 Championships, had five birdies against four bogeys in an action-packed round.
Two other Indian, Vihaan Jain (76-74) and Arshvant Srivastava (80-73) were further down the field in T39th and T65th places.
Lavanya Gupta (72-73) held on to tied fifth place in the Girls 15-18 but only four strokes behind the leader Laura Sofia Espinosa Gonzalez of Colombia, who rose eight places after a second round of 68 following an opening 73.
In the Boys 14, Ranveer Mitroo (74-73) improved three places and is now T12 behind the leader, Aaron Didjunas (69-72) of the US. Tejas Mishra (76-76) was T32 and Udai Aditya Middha (74-80) was T46.
Middle of the pack
In the Boys 15-18 at the Pinehurst No. 2 course, Ranveer Singh Dhupia (76-76) was T55. In the Girls 13, Asara Sawhney (83-79) improved to T28 at Pine Needles Lodge and Golf Club.
Ten Indians are playing in the US Kids Golf World Teen Championships and another 12 will tee up at US Kids Worlds for Boys and Girls six to 12 next week.
The U.S. Kids Golf World Teen Championship is recognised as a ranked event for the Junior Golf Scoreboard and the American Junior Golf Association besides allowing the players to gain World Amateur Golf Ranking points.
Top players emerging from US Kids include world no. 1 Scottie Scheffler, two-time major winners Collin Morikawa and Justin Thomas, and Indian-American star Sahith Theegala.
The women stars from US Kids include Lexi Thompson and US Open champion Allisen Corpuz, who is a three-time winner and twice a runner-up at US Kids.
Aditi Ashok and two-time national champion Avani Prashanth have also played with distinction at US Kids events.
Also read: Mahreen, Kartik, and Lavanya start well at US Kids Teen Worlds
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