By Rahul Banerji
Punjab and Chandigarh golfers made their mark with four titles in the opening leg of the US Kids Golf North at the Classic Golf and Country Club on Wednesday.
Besides the four wins, the visiting golfers also chalked up top-three finishes in some of the other sections.
A heartening feature was that several of the winners got the new season off to a roaring start with under par scores with six events each slated for North, South and West Zones, besides the Indian National Championships in December for a total of 19 events.
One of the most impressive performers was Chandigarh’s Guntas Kaur Sandhu in the Girls 11-12, landing two eagles and a birdie, besides one dropped shot that gave her a 4-under 32 for the back nine of the course.
In her second nine, on the front side of the course, Guntas dropped three shots but picked two birdies and closed the day with three pars for a winning 69.
Birdie hunt
Sohraab Singh of Mohali went bridie hunting with seven in the Boys 10 category besides dropping four shots a double in an aggressive display.
Two other promising talents, Siddhant Verma of Faridabad, and Bangalore’s Adit Veeramachaneni, who hardly lost last season, were second and third with 72 and 75.
Chaitanya Pandey of Delhi maintained his position as a consistent performer with five birdies against three bogeys, while winning the Boys 12 title.
In the most intensely contested section, Anshh Dubey of Gautam Buddha Nagar produced three birdies in last six holes to beat Prince Bainsla (72) and Arshvant Srivastava, who recovered from a double bogey start for a round of 74.
In two of the younger sections, Amaira Gulati, a regular winner from Lucknow, produced a clean card with one eagle and one birdie and no bogeys for a winning 3-under 33 in Girls 8 section.
Divjot Kumar Gupta of Jalandhar, who has had some fine performances in the last season, had two birdies against one bogey in his nine-hole round of 1-under 35 in the Boys 8 category. His closest rival Sahib Aujla was three shots behind.
US Kids Golf India and Asia president Rajesh Srivastava said, “It was a great seeing Punjab and Chandigarh golfers do so well. They also had a lot of places in Top-3 of various categories.
“With Noida and Delhi golfers also producing three wins each and one from Lucknow and Gurgaon, it shows a growing spread of talent across North India.
“And we are going to have that in the South and West Zones, too. It will produce a very strong Indian contingent for the US Kids Golf Indian National Championships in December.”
The second leg will be held on Thursday.
First leg results
Boys 6 (9 holes): 1. Ranveer Baloria (Delhi) 47; 2. Siddhik Chaturvedi (Noida) 68; 3.
Boys 7 (9 holes): 1. Zorawar Singh Chahal (Mohali) 39; 2. Tansh Bansal (Chd) 43; 3. Samar Singh (Gurgaon) 46
Boys 8 (9 holes): 1. Divjot Kumar Gupta (Pun) 35 (-1); 2. Sahib Aujla (Chd) 38; 3. Upraj SIngh Mehdiratta (Mohali) 43
Boys 10: 1. Sohraab Singh Talwar (Mohali) 71; 2. Siddhant Sharma (Faridabad) 72; 3. Adit Veeramachaneni (Bang) 75
Boys 11: 1. Dhruv Singh (Gurgaon) 79; T2. Aditya Mishra (Delhi) 79; T2 Raajveer Suri (Noida) 79
Boys 12: 1. Chaitanya Pandey (Delhi) 70 (-2); 2. Devvrat Singh Rajawat (Jaipur) 76; T2. Danish Verma (Pun) 76
Boys 13-14: 1.Anshh Dubey (Gautam Bud Ngr) 71; 2. Prince Bainsla (Har) 72; 3, Arshvant Srivastava (Noida) 74
Boys 15-18: 1. Anshul Bhati (Greater Noida) 75; 2. Vihaan Malhotra (Delhi) 76; 3. Aftab Singh Bakshi (Delhi) 78
Girls 8: 1. Amaira Gulati (UP) 33 (-3); 2. Gairat Kaur Kahlon (Mohali) 36; 3. Aaradhya Bhatnagar (Noida) 49.
Girls 9-10: 1. Aanya Dandriyal (Gr. Noida) 80
Girls 11-12: 1. Guntas Kaur Sandhu (Chd) 69 (-3); 2. Anushka Gupta (Delhi) 71; 3. Shambhavi Chaturvedi (Noida) 72
Girls 13-14: 1. Ayesha Gupta (Delhi) 74; 2. Parnika Sharma (Noida) 75; 3. Anandita Baloria (85).
Also read: US Kids Golf season tees off with eye on Asian tour for juniors
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