NEW DELHI: The inaugural Indian championship — an event on the international calendar of the US Kids Golf Tournament — is all set to tee off at the sprawling Classic Golf & Country Club in Manesar from Wednesday.
The championship is being held for the first time since the US Kids Golf Tour was launched in India in December 2018, thus giving India a place of pride amongst the countries that are allotted the coveted status. Qualification for the championship is a grind with the players collecting status ranking priority points in the local tours across the world.
The multi-city Indian local tour consisted of two zones — North and South — where each player got an opportunity to play a maximum of eight events, based on their domicile.
“The sport of golf is growing rapidly in India for kids as parents realise the long term benefits of bringing their kids into the game. We are very proud to announce that India has achieved the status of an International US Kids golf event in such a short span. This goes on to say the efforts put in by our Indian team,” said Dan Van Horn, President and Founder, US Kids Golf.
Some of the bright products of the Championship include Raghav Chugh, who won the teen World Championship at Pinehurst last year and Delhi lad Chaitanya Pandya, who had won the European Championship at Scotland in May.
Many PGA, LPGA Tour star players like Lexi Thompson, Justin Thomas to name a few have benefited from similar US Kids Tours in America when they began playing competitive golf in their early careers. IANS