US Kids Golf: Nihal, Kabir, Danish, Bainsla, Ananyaa seek more success in 5th leg

GURGAON: Nihal Cheema, one of youngest Indian champions in the US Kids Golf India series, will be among the winners from the recently held Indian Championships, who will feature at the fifth leg of the 2023 US Kids Golf India North Tour. The field for each of the last two events, the fifth and sixth and final leg, which is also the 2023 Tour Championships, will see almost 60 young golfers in action.

Nihal leads a bunch of half a dozen Indian Championship winners from the flagship event, the three-day Indian Championships which was held last week at the same venue. Nihal, who played and won in the Boys 7 Category will go back to the Boys 6 and Under section.

Kabir Goyal, another impressive winner in the Indian Championship, will feature in the Boys 8 category, where he will face stiff competition from Ojasv Saraswat, Sahib Aujla and Divjot Gupta. Three other Indian Championship winners, who will demand attention are Rudar Gupta (Boys 9), Danish Verma (Boys 12) and Prince Bainsla (Boys 13-14).

"I am very impressed by the appetite for competition and the hunger shown by our young champions at the US Kids Indian Championships and their desire to compete even more. Many of these young stars are keen to build on the success and aspire for greater heights at the European and World Championships," said Rajesh Srivastava, President of US Kids Golf India. "The desire to excel will increase as we set up the US Kids Asian Tour in the next season," he added.

Danish and Bainsla, two of the most impressive winners at the Indian Championships, have also chosen to return for the fifth leg of the local Tour. Danish's scores at the Indian Championships included an amazing 63 in the Boys 12 category.

Danish will lock horns with Chaitanya Pandey, another talented young golfer from the National Capital Region. Bainsla, who has a solid series of scores at 74-71-70, plays in the Boys 13-14, and will take on fast-improving Ayaan Dubey and Arshvant Srivastava, who is recovering from an injury and an eye infection. Another Indian Championship winner who will be in action is Ananyaa Sood, who faces strong rivals, Parnika Sharma and Anandita Baloria in the Girls 13-14.

In Boys 7, there should be a strong showing from Zorawar Singh Chahal, while in Boys 10, there will be a focus on Arnav Patel of Gujarat, who was a medallist at the Indian Championships. The Boys 11 section sees Vidit Aggarwal, Paranjay Mahtani and Raajveer Surri, also. In Boys 15-18 Manyaveer Bhadoo, who had a lot of success in previous local tour events, will be among those teeing up.

The Girls 8 section has the highly successful Amaira Gulati, while the Girls 9-10 has Aanya Dandriyal. The Girls 11-12 segment will be a tight contest with Shambhavi Chaturvedi, Guntas Kaur Sandhu, Naina Kapoor and Rabab Kahlon in the fray.