By Rahul Banerji
India’s top junior Raghav Chugh made it a start to finish run in the boys 15 to 18 years category of the US Kids Golf World Teen Championship in Pinehurst, North Carolina, taking the title by a clear five-shot margin on Saturday.
Leading by four strokes after day two, Chugh (68, 73, 75) made the most of his time on the Pinehurst 2 course and while he finished on level-par 216, the overnight cushion was enough for him to come home comfortably ahead of second placed Spencer Turtz of the United States (221).
The 16-year-old from Delhi thus became the first from India to win the US Kids Golf Teen World Championship. Raghav is coached by Romit Bose.
Given the fact that the next best score on the day was 1-over 73, USA’s Luke Basile’s 3-under 69 must count as an extraordinary effort and it was good enough to guarantee a third place finish with a 222 aggregate.
Difficult day
It was hard going from the start and Chugh was two strokes down within the opening four holes itself. He did manage to pull a shot back with birdie on the fifth and looked like getting some control back on proceedings with pars in the last four holes of his front nine.
Having made the turn on 1-over 37, Raghav once again made an early bogey to go 2-over, and was soon 3-over after the 12h.
A birdied 14th hole was however, nullified by yet another bogey on his 18th and final hole, but the rest of the field were faring no better and it was enough to land the Delhi teenager a landmark win.
The 16-year-old, who had Bose on the bag for the Pinehurst event, is no. 1 on the Indian Golf Union’s junior boys Category A rankings. He received an exemption entry to the USKG event based on his national status.
The other Indian in the field, Jalandhar’s Jot Parkash Singh, finished well down the field.
Chugh won the USKG India Tour’s South Zone opener this May at the Clover Greens course in Hosur near Bangalore, bringing in a 7-under par card of 65 on the day.
The USKG event had six age categories and was played over 54 holes at one of the iconic golf venues in the United States.
APGC youngsters finish well
At the 2019 European Young Masters in the Czech Republic that also concluded on Saurday, the Asia Pacific Golf Confederation team that included Pranavi Urs and Arjun Bhati of India, Malaysia’s Mirabel Ting and Laopkade Pongsapak, were unofficially fourth after the final day was hit by rain.
Had scores counted, they would have been behind Germany, France and the Netherlands in that order on the table.
Saturday’s truncated scores were discarded which mean that Mirabel finished third at 6-under par (67, 71) in the girls individual event despite leading on the final day. Pranavi was tied 16th on 1-over 145 (73, 72).
In the boys competition, Laopkade was also brought in a bronze medal finish for his 10-under aggregate while Arjun was further down the field on level par 144 at the par-72 Golf and Spa Kunetika Hora course.
The APGC team was accompanied by Ishwar Achanta as advisor and Rabetul Abbas as captain.
Also read:Singapore Junior Golf Championship gold for Aryan Roopa Anand
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