Chaitanya Pandey was among the five players to complete back-to-back wins at the 2021 US Kids Golf India North Tour at the ITC Classic Golf and Country Club. Playing in the Under-10 segment, Chaitanya, who went through a play-off in the first event on Thursday won by three shots over the Dubai-based Siddhaan Chibber.
The other young stars completing a second time in the double header in the US Kids Golf North Tour were Samar Baijal (Boys Under 7), Shambhavi Chaturvedi (Girls 9-10), Parnika Sharma (Girls 11-12) and Mahreen Bhatia (Girls 13-14).
The youngest winner on Friday was Nalinaksh in the Boys Under 6 and he shot 7-over 43 in his nine holes at the ITC Classic Golf and Country Club.
Another popular winner was Prince Bainsla in the Boys-under 11 and he got a big ovation when he went up to get his winner’s gold medal after scoring 3-over 75 beating Armin Paul Singh, the winner in the first event, by three shots. In the first event Armin won by one shot over Prince.
In the Girls Under 8, Aanya Dandriyal, who was third in the first event a day earlier, turned the tables and beat Annika Chendira by one shot in the nine-hole tussle.
Arshvant Srivastava looked set for a winning double, as he led by two shots with two holes to go in his tussle with Bhawesh Nirwan. A double bogey after going into the bunker on 17th and a closing bogey on 18th meant he dropped from one-under to 2-over and lost by one shot to Bhawesh, who compensated for being third in the first event.
Tournament Director, Amit Dube, a former India international and now a coach, was elated at the response and performance. “Some of these youngsters have amazing potential and we want to give them the best platform and best playing opportunities.”
Rajesh Srivastava, President, US Kids Golf India, added, “The first two events after a gap of 20 months were an enormous success. The young golfers, as also their enthusiastic parents, were fantastic and they made this so much fun and we saw such awesome talent at the world-class ITC Classic Golf and Country Club.
We will be soon announcing some plans on how to give these children more opportunities in competition and coaching because we strongly believe that India has huge potential, and these kids are a perfect example.”
The top finishers will get Priority points based on their finish and scores and that in turn will help them get entries into world level international events like the US Kids World Championships at Pinehurst in US and the US Kids Europe competition.
The three youngest divisions – Boys Under 6, Boys Under 7 and Girls Under 8 were contested over nine holes.
The next set of events in eight-event US Kids Golf India North Tour will be held on December 9 and 10 at the IT Classic Golf and Resort Club, who are becoming the partners with US Kids Golf India and have big plans for the promising golfers.
Results of Second event of the 2021 US Kids Golf India North Tour:
Boys
Boys under 6: Nalinaksh
Boys Under 7: Samar Baijal
Boys-under 9: Vedant Paul
Boys-under 10: Chaitanya Pandey
Boys Under 11: Prince Bainsla
Boys Under 12: Bhawesh Nirwan
Boys 13-14: Vedant Banerjee Sodhi
Boys 15-18: Siddharth Kaul
Girls
Girls Under 8: Aanya Dandriyal
Girls 9-10: Shambhavi Chaturvedi
Girls 11-12: Parnika Sharma
Girls 13-14: Mahreen Bhatia
