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Punjab and Chandigarh golfers left a big mark in the opening leg of the US Kids Golf North as the new season got off to a solid start with the opening event of the six-leg series at the Classic Golf and Country Club, here on Wednesday.

They won titles in four of the 12 sections besides some other places at the Top-3 with some impressive performances.

One of the most impressive performers was Chandigarh’s Guntas Kaur Sandhu in Girls 11-12. She had a terrific first nine after starting on the tenth. She landed two eagles on the Par-5 14th and the Par-5 18th and a birdie, too, on the Par-4 15th. She also dropped a shot on the 12th and was 4-under 32 for the back nine of the course.

On her second nine, the front side of the Classic Golf and Country Club, Guntas dropped shots on first, third, and fifth, but picked birdies on fourth and sixth, as she closed the day with three pars for a winning 69.

Sohraab Singh of Mohali went bridie hunting with seven of them in his round in the Boys 10 category. He also dropped four bogeys and a double bogey in an aggressive display. Two other promising talents, Siddhant Verma of Faridabad, and Bangalore’s Adit Veeramachaneni, who hardly lost last season, were second and third with 72 and 75.

Chaitanya Pandey of Delhi maintained his position as a consistent performer with five birdies against three bogeys while winning the Boys 12 title.

In the most intensely contested section, Anshh Dubey of Gautam Buddha Nagar produced three birdies in the last six holes to beat Prince Bainsla (72) and Arshvant Srivastava, who recovered from a double bogey start for a round of 74.

In two of the younger sections, Amaira Gulati, a regular winner from Lucknow, produced a clean card with one eagle, one birdie, and no bogeys for a winning 3-under 33 in the Girls 8 section.

Divjot Kumar Gupta of Jalandhar, who has had some fine performances in the last season, had two birdies against one bogey in his nine-hole round of 1-under 35 in the Boys 8 category. His closest rival Sahib Aujla was three shots behind.

Rajesh Srivastava, President of US Kids Golf India and Asia, said, “It was great seeing Punjab and Chandigarh golfers do so well. They also had a lot of places in the Top-3 of various categories.

“With other winners from Noida and Delhi producing three each and one from Lucknow and Gurgaon, it shows a growing spread of talent across North India. And we are going to have that in the South and West Zones, too. It will produce a very strong Indian contingent for the US Kids Golf Indian National Championships in December.”

The most heartening feature was that half the winners got the new season off to a roaring start with under-par scores, showing readiness for the rest of the season, which will see six events each in three zones across the country in North, South, and West and the Indian National Championships in December for a total of 19 events.

The second leg will be held on Thursday.