Eight young stars set out to achieve treble at US Kids Golf India

By Rahul Banerji

Eight young golfers across 14 categories will attempt to complete a hat-trick of wins as the third leg of the US Kids Golf India gets underway at the Golden Greens Golf Club on Thursday.

Seven others featuring in the third leg have won once in one of the two legs played so far.

With another large group having signed up for the third and fourth legs of the series, the players are looking for Priority Level status for the US Kids Europe and World Championships.

Also available are American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) stars, which helps them get into international events.

The Indian Championship, from November 23 to 25 at the Classic Golf and Country Club, will have World Amateur Golf Ranking points.

Players shooting scores of 72 and below in at least two Local Tour events will earn Level 11 status and will earn AJGA Performance Stars.

The US Kids local Tour is the only tournament where players can earn AJGA Stars.

Short list

Those looking for title trebles are Amaira Gulati of Lucknow (girls under-8) and Mahreen Bhatia of Gurgaon (girls 13-14).

Nihal Cheema of Chandigarh (boys U-6), Kabir Goyal of Noida (Boys U-7), Jot Sarup Gupta of Jalandhar (boys U-8), Adit Veeramachaneni of Bangalore (boys U-9), Chaitanya Pandey of Delhi (boys U-11) and Manyaveer Bhadoo of Chandigarh (boys 15-18) are the others.

The boys 13-14 has the most entries followed by the U-12 boys. In all, there are five age groups for girls and nine for boys.

Rajesh Srivastava, US Kids Golf India president, said, “It is heartening to see so many winners from the past two events come back despite their busy schedules to add to their experience.

“We look forward to making them young champions by getting them to play age-specific yardages at top-class courses like Golden Greens and Classic Golf and Country Club.”

Valuable exposure

Tournament director and former pro Amit Dube, now a well-known coach, added, “Many of these youngsters will get status to get to the US Kids Europe and World Championships and play some of the best courses in the world.

“It is an experience rare at this young age. It will prepare them for the big challenges as they grow in the game.”

As many as 50 youngsters have entered the tournament, which will be played at the challenging Golden Greens. The third leg will be followed by the fourth leg on Friday, November 4.

The numbers have touched 50 despite examinations looming large for a good number of young golfers.

The third and fourth legs will be followed by the Indian Championships at the Classic Golf and Country Club. Two more one-day events follow in December.

Also read: Arshvant, Ojaswini are US Kids Golf India repeat winners