Milind Soni registered a top-finish at the qualifiers in Hyderabad
Milind Soni and US college returned Raghav Chugh among the boys and Nishna Patel, Avani Prashanth and Smriti Bhargava qualified for the Indian Golf Union’s team which will go to Paris in late August for the 2022 World Amateur Team Championship. The 3rd member of the Men’s team will be Rayhan Thomas, who is playing college golf in the USA.
Poor Conditions – Attention needs to be drawn to a few aspects of the selection trials – the girls played the picturesque but short 5700 yard course at HGA in the qualifier whereas they will be competing in Paris on a 6400 yard course. Similarly the boys played the HGA at 6000 yards whereas the Paris course will be closer to 7300 yards. Also due to routine summer maintenance taking place at most Indian courses at this time, the greens at HGA were cored and were extremely slow whereas Paris is most likely to be lighting fast.
Sneha Singh, the 2nd ranked Indian in the World Rankings, fresh off a strong showing in Singapore at the Asia Pacific Championship in singapore in tough conditions, lost out to the shorter hitting girls by two strokes on the short HGA layout whereas she and Avani really should have been automatic selections given their stellar performances over the past 6 -7 months. They returned from Singapore and had to fly to Hyderabad for these trials the very next day – playing in gruelling heat and humidity both weeks. Is this really a fair selection process? And does this make for the best Indian team possible in the most important amateur tournament for India all year? Is it right to select a national team based on a super short golf course undergoing repairs which has no resemblance to the tournament course in Paris? Will the shorter hitters be able to perform on the longer course in Paris ?
Is this really a fair trial and shouldn’t there be a minimum course length and green speed required when doing selections for such important international teams ? Does this serve Indian golf’s interests best ? Who is to answer these questions ? We request the Indian Golf Union to reply to these questions.
Soni, who was playing on his home course, had a best four-round score of 65-69-66-66 (14-under 266), which was four shots better than Chugh, the Rice University 1st year student who flew in from Houston, Texas for the selection tournament. Chugh’s best four rounds were 68-69-68-65 (10-under 270).
Soni has been in good form lately, winning the IGU’s Andhra Pradesh Amateur by three-strokes at East Point Golf Club in Visakhapatnam two weeks ago while Chugh, the former No.1 ranked junior and amateur golfer in India, who joined the golf team at Rice University in Texas last September, was named the Area Men’s Golf Freshman (1st year student) of the Year.
In the ladies section, Patel’s best four rounds were 68-65-70-67 (10-under 270). She was followed by 15-year-old Prashanth with scores of 71-71-67-63 (8-under 272) and Bhargava, who booked the last spot with rounds of 72-69-71-70 (2-over 282).
Prashanth recently finished tied-21st at the prestigious Augusta National Women’s Amateur, in which she competed against a strong field of 72 players that included several of the top-ranked women amateurs in the world.
Format for the World Amateurs
Each national team of three players plays 18-holes of stroke play for four days. The two lowest scores from each team on each day constitutes the team score for the round. The four day total is the team’s score for the championship.
Credits:-
Photo – Indian Golfing Hub