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| Sunday, 19 December 2004 |
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Junior golfers invited to play in India's Southern Zone by Lal Gunasekera An open invitation has been extended by the Indian Golf Union to the Sri Lanka Golf Union (SLGU) to send more juniors to play in the South Zone (Madras, Bangalore, Calcutta) where there are three to four tournaments each year and also see whether Indrajith Bhalotia, a top notch Indian coach from East Zone, could help out in Sri Lanka's junior programme. This was disclosed to the Sunday Observer by Gaurav Ghosh, representing the Indian GU at last week's Sri Lanka Junior Open Championship where a couple of Indians too competed for honours. Ghosh said that he will try his very best to negotiate with the Indian Golf Union and in particularly Dilip Thomas (who is a good friend of Sri Lanka's golf) to send Bhalotia to Sri Lanka. He said that it could be easy to get Indian corporate interests in Sri Lanka, including Sahara Air and Jet Air, for them to help out with this programme. Ghosh, who is also involved with the Tea Trade, has also been involved with the junior committee and coaching sub committee of the IGU, for the last two years, said that there are 12 categories and national level tournaments for the juniors in India, which includes the All-India Junior Championship. The tournaments are distributed among the four zones (East, West, North and South). He said: "Indian juniors travel to various countries and this is the first time they are in Sri Lanka. The top four are now playing in the Asia Pacific Masters in Bangkok where one player is lying fourth at the moment after two rounds. They will also play in the qualifying Junior World Cup in Malaysia in January next year (2005) and also for the first time our juniors played in the Bangladesh Amateur Championship to get exposure. Ten juniors were sent out this year (2004)". A lot of development has taken place in India in junior golf and now they are right up with other Asian countries, which was not visible in the last two to three years. He said that India's No.2 junior is ranked No.1 among the senior men. He is Gagjanjeet Bhullat from the Punjab. Ghosh further said that they have a good coaching programme in each zone, and where the East Zone is concerned, they get coaches certified by the European PGA and possess six to seven national level players in the last one and a half years. They visit schools to spot talent, involve children of members to like to take to golf, there is also the skilled players and also an elite group (the top eight players) where "everything" is taken care of like clothing, coaches and even equipment. Ghosh, who has been playing golf for over 25 years, returned to India last Friday morning. |
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