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Juniors at the greens
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Not content with just organising tournaments for youngsters, the CGC has now set up an academy to train them
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TAKING THE CUE For an early start
As part of its commitment to promote golf among juniors in the city, the Coimbatore Golf Club (CGC) has set up an academy at the Chettipalayam golf course here.
"The idea is to train the under-15 juniors in the game and shape them up to compete in the Indian Golf Union's categorised tournaments," says CGC President, K. Rajagopal.
The academy, supported by the CGC Trust, will impart free coaching. Besides, it will also provide free equipment and facilities.
The programme is open to all interested in the sport and will be held on weekends.
Generation next
The CGC has always focussed on junior golf. In 1998 and 2000, the golf club brought in leading Italian coach Allessio Cocchi to train the juniors. During his second visit, the club conducted a tournament for South Indian juniors. Some promising lads even got a chance to train in Italy.
"It is from this crop of juniors that we today have Joseph Chakola, the No 1 amateur golfer in India.
This is the first time a golfer from South India has achieved this," says Rajagopal. Raghavendra Naidu and Prithiviraj Ramamoorthy from Coimbatore are the other active participants in the amateur circuit.
Among the others who attended the camp were Anirbhan Lahiri from Hyderabad, an amateur who is among the top ten, and Bhavana Shetty and Sonam from Mysore, who are creating waves in the Indian ladies circuit. Khalan Joshi, Pradyamuna Prakash and his sister Uttara from Bangalore are all active players in the circuit.
To provide further fillip to the game, the CGC conducted its first IGU-categorised junior tournament in 2004.
Pioneering win
The tournament saw local lad Siddarth Srinivasan turning the tables and becoming the first South Indian to win a categorised junior tournament ever.
Since then, the Club has been conducting this tournament every year.
This year, all the leading juniors will be seen in action at the Chettipalayam greens between June 6 and 9 for the second edition of the CGC Citibank junior sub-junior open championship.
The tournament has been granted the status of a regional tournament, making it compulsory for all leading youngsters to play in the city to maintain their ranking in the national merit list.
Today, the club has set its sights on two fast growing juniors — Siddarth Sharathram and Vashista Pawar, who rank 13th and 15th respectively in the national merit list for the under-10 juniors for 2005.
Successful tourney
Last year, golf clubs in South India set up the South Zone junior circuit to help juniors to experience tournament-level golf in the national scenario.
This was a roaring success. Since then, nine tournaments are being held every year at various clubs in South India.
This only goes to show that good planning and training will certainly take the juniors places.
Those interested in joining the programme may contact the CGC at 0422-2655258 or 2655363 for details.
RAYAN ROZARIO
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