Anushka, Chaitanya emerge youngest winners at US Kids Golf event

Anushka Gupta and Chaitanya Gupta emerged champions in under-7 girls and boys competition respectively at the US Kids Golf India Tour's first event here on Friday. As many as 71 participants across 13 categories teed off at the Jack Nicklaus designed Classic Golf & Country Club here, which has staged top-ticket professional events like the Indian Open and SAIL Open in the past.

The tour lays out age-specific yardages and that found appreciation in Jai Bahl's words, winner of the 13-14 years category. "I am not a long hitter but the course layout helped me score well," he said.

Winners in other categories were Lavanya Gupta in Girls 10-11 years, Ragini Navet in Girls 12-14 years, Khushi Dawar in Girls 15-18 years, Sohang Har Kantor in Boys 8 years, Bhavesh Nirwan in Boys 9 years, Udai Aditya Middha in Boys 10 years, Kushagra Tokas in Boys 11 years, Vickram Baruah in Boys 12 years and Aaryomaan Bose in Boys 15-18 years.

Renowned Indian golfer Jyoti Randhawa, who was present to encourage the children, lauded the effort to take golf to the grassroots. "In my days, there were hardly any junior tournaments and very little competition. So this endeavour from U.S. Kids Golf is very encouraging," he said.

The US Kids Golf India Tour 2018-19 edition will carry ranking points, and with participation in a minimum of four events out of the eight, the junior golfers will be able to gain qualification for the US Kids World Championship, US Kids European Championships and US Kids Teen World Championship.

Subsequent events will be held at Tollygunge Club (Kolkata), Eagleton Golf Resort (Bengaluru), Boulder Hills Golf and Country Club (Hyderabad), Chandigarh Golf Club and Poona Club Golf Course (Pune).