US Kids Indian Championship to offer cash prizes, global pathway

Gurugram, Dec 16 (PTI) Around 100 young golfers will tee off on Wednesday at the fifth edition of the U.S. Kids Golf Indian Championships, which will, for the first time, offer prize money in accordance with rules applicable to amateurs.

Each of the 13 categories will carry a prize which will be distributed up to the fifth place, in addition to a special ‘Skills contest’ to be held over two days during the three-day event at the Jack Nicklaus-designed Classic Golf & Country Club in Manesar.

The U.S. Kids Golf Indian Championship 2025, a WAGR-recognized event, will also help players aim for priority status, based on scores, to qualify for the US Kids Golf European in Scotland in May 2026 and US Kids Teen and World Championships in Pinehurst, United States in July-August 2026.

The winners in each age category will receive Rs. 25,000 without any deductions and Rs. 10,000 goes to the runner-up. The third, fourth and fifth place finishers will receive Rs. 5,000 each. Additionally there will be cash prizes in the Skills contest.

Some of the well-known names will include Arshvant Srivastava, Prince Bainsla, Bhavesh Nirwan in Boys 15-18; Vidit Aggarwal in Boys 13-14; Adit Veeramachaneni, Sohrab Talwar, Siddhant Sharma in in Boys 12; Drona Singh Dhull in Boys 11 and Vedaansh Jain in Boys 10.

Pocket dynamos Nihal Cheema and Zowra Sikand will compete in the Category Boys 8 and Naaysha S Sinha in Girls 8.

Among girls, Aahana Srivastava and Aadya Kaushal 9-10; Aanya Dandriyal in Girls 11-12; Shambhavi Chaturvedi, Rabab Kahlon and Naina Kapoor in Girls 13-14, and Kriti Parekh in 15-18 are some of the past winners in local events who will compete.

The golfers will come from all over Asia and include players from Singapore, China, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Uzbekistan, South Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines, and hosts India.

They will compete in age categories ranging from Under-7 to Under 18 years and will play on a course, which has been adjusted for ages, as per US Kids Golf charter. PTI Cor ATK