Vedika lies second in US Kids World Championship, Ojaswini is ninth

Pinehurst (US), Aug 1 (PTI) Indian golfers Vedika Bhansali and Ojaswini Saraswat made promising starts to find a place in the top-10 after the opening day of the US Kids World Championship golf at Pinehurst Village here.

Bengaluru's Vedika with a bogey-free 3-under 33 was tied-second with five others and was one shot behind the leader, Audrey Zhang of the US.

Ojaswini from Mohali, a former medallist at the US Kids World Championship, was Tied-ninth in Girls 12 after a card of 2-under. She was runner-up in Girls 11 a year ago and is looking at going one better.

Vedika, who was fourth a year ago in Girls 8 category, had three birdies and Ojaswini, runner-up last year in Girls 11, had three birdies and dropped her only shot on the 18th at the Longleaf club.

Chandigarh golfer Nihal Cheema, who was runner-up on Boys 7 in 2024, had just one birdie against two bogeys in his nine-hole round at Mid Pines (Black).

Cheema, playing in Boys 8 Category this year, was placed Tied-12th.

Results of the Indians at US Kids World Championships at Pinehurst: The Indian boys were placed as follows: Boys 8: Nihal Cheema (Boys 8, Chandigarh) T-12; Boys 10: Kabir Goyal (Boys 10, Noida) shot 72 (T-33); Boys 11: Sohraab Singh Talwar (Boys 11, Mohali) – 76 (T-50); Boys 12: Adit Veeramachaneni (Boys 12, Bangalore) – 73 (T-23), Siddhant Sharma (Boys 12, Faridabad) 78 – (T-93) and Hridaan Saraogi (Boys 12, Jaipur) 79 (T-112).

The girls were placed as follows: Girls 8: Pramati Veera (Girls 8, Bangalore) – 37 in 9-hole round (T-21), Naaysha S Sinha (Girls 8, Noida) 38 in 9-hole round (T-29); Girls 9: Vedika Bhansali (Girls 9, Bangalore) 33 in 9-hole round (T-2); Ahana Shah (Girls 9, Mumbai) 41 (T-61), Suhani Chandra (Girls 9, Gurugram) 43 (T-75), Aahana Shrivastava (Girls 9, Gurugram) 44 (T-83); Girls 11: Aida Thimmaiah (Girls 11, Bangalore) 75 (T-23); Girls 12: Ojaswini Saraswat (Girls 12, Mohali) 70 (T-9). PTI Cor ATK ATK