More than 100 young golfers from eight countries tee off at US Kids Golf Indian Championship

Khel Today Bureau

Gurugram: More than 100 young golfers will tee off at the second Indian Championships, a three-day event that gives the golfers a chance to book their places into the US Kids Golf European and World Championships next year.

A part of the US Kids Golf India series, the event, which awards World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR) points will be held at the Classic Golf and Country Club from November 23-25 and in 13 different age categories. The entries for the event have golfers from eight countries including India.

The youngsters will play of age-specific tees at the Classic Golf and Country Club.

The Indian stars and hopefuls include numerous players who have won on the domestic Tour and are looking forward to gathering WAGR points at the Indian Championship.

The performance on the domestic Tour, the Indian Championship and the WAGR points collected by the players will determine their qualification for the European and World Championship events to be held in 2023.

Among the players who have won each of the four domestic events held so far are Nihal Cheema (Boys 6), Jot Sarup Gupta (Boys 8), Adit Veeramachaneni (Boys 9), Chaitanya Pandey (Boy 11), Manyaveer. Bhadoo (Boys 15-18) and Mehreen Bhatia (Girls 13-14).

Some of the players this week, who did well last year at World Championship, will include Kabir Goyal (fourth in Under-7), Chaitanya Pandey (25th in Under 10) and Arshvant (tied 10th in Under 12). They are all now in a higher age category.

A few other names to look out for will include Amaira Gulati (Girls 8), Naina Kapoor (Girls 9-10), Shambhavi Chaturvedi (Girls 11-12), Divjot Gupta (Boys 7), Kabir Goyal (Boys 8), Aditya Misra, Rajveer Suri and Dhruv Singh (all in Boys 10), Prince Bainsla and Armin Paul SIngh (Boys 12), Udai Aditya Middha, Bhavesh Nirwan, Ranveer Dhupia, Anshul Bhati and Arshvant Srivastava (all in Boys 13-14).

Rajesh Srivastava, President of the US Kids Golf India, said, “The staging of the second Indian Championship under the US Kids Golf India banner is a landmark. With more than 100 players from eight countries including India, we expect the three-day contest for honours and WAGR points to be intense. With golf also finding a place in the Commonwealth Games, besides Olympics and Asian Games, the future is bright for these youngsters.”

He added, “We will also soon be announcing some major incentives for the young golfers in India and that will junior golf and US Kids Golf India to new heights.”

Rajat Sethi, General Manager of the Classic Golf and Country Club, added, “We are proud to help these youngsters fulfil their potential. We welcome these junior stars to our golf course and wish them all the best and there are participants from other countries, and I would like them to carry back great memories of India and the Classic Golf and Country Club.”

The Indian Championship is one of the four International Championships left on the US Kids Golf Schedule with the other events being in Australia, Brazil and Mexico City. So far, 13 other International Championships have been held in 2022.

The Founder and President of the US Kids Golf programme, which now has 1600 tournaments around the world, which offer places at the US Kids European in Scotland and World Championship at Pinehurst, Dan Van Horn, will be present on the final day.

The first tee off at the Classic Golf and Country Club will be at 8 am. The event will run through for three days from November 23 to 25, 2022.