Indians have a good chance to make it big in the international sports scene if the country can produce and train more young promising golfers.
Akshay Maliwal, golf champion from the University of California-Berkeley, now Founder-CEO of sports events company DreamBig, said about Indian golfing talents. Preparations are already underway for “The Road To U.S. College Golf: the Gold Series Golf Camp and Tournament” that DreamBig Events will stage for junior golfers aged 12 to 18 years old this December.
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For the first time US Division I NCAA golf coaches are coming to New Delhi this December to conduct a two-day camp that will expose junior golfers to guided game sessions that will sharpen their practice and pre-tournament skills. There will also be a 2-day pre-qualifying tournament for the Callaway Future Champions Golf (FCG) World Championship scheduled in July 2020 in Rancho Mirage, California.
To be flown here directly by DreamBig, the golf coaches – Andrew Larkin from the University of California – Los Angeles (UCLA), Rich Muller from Columbia University and Chris Massoletti of University of California – Berkeley — will run the two-day golf clinic.
“The coaches are very eager to meet the young Indian golfers because they’ve heard a lot about the talented golfers who come from India. Indian golfers here have the built-in advantage of having beautiful golf courses with good facilities that they can train on. That, plus their innate golfing talent is a powerful mix; the only thing missing is a strong grassroots and junior program so the country can produce many more golf champions in the future. Indian athletes need proper guidance and training to compete on a global scale,” Maliwal noted.
He added that the golf camp and tournament, which participants can take as a package or as individual events, will place them in a good situation to be noticed and possibly recruited by foreign coaches who can steer them into golf scholarship programs in the best schools in the U.S.
“Dream Big is a big believer in the talent of young Indians in golf. That is why we took great pains to bring both a pre-qualifying tournament and the Gold Series Camp to New Delhi. We wanted to provide young golfers and their families the convenience of experiencing both the camp and the tournament here so they can do away with the long travel time and an extended stay in a foreign country. It will save them more money and give the young talent better conditions to learn their game. Not only will they be able to interact more deeply with the foreign coaches, but they can also save costs in travel, inland transportation, board and lodging and miscellaneous expenses. They will save over USD 5,000 if they join the camp and tournament here instead of going to the US for the same experience,” Maliwal explained.
The FCG tournament also gives local junior golfers the rare chance of qualifying in India instead of having to travel to the US to test their chances there.
DreamBig’s “The Road To U.S. College Golf, Gold Series Golf Camp” and the tournament are limited to 30 participants only to enable personalized and customized instruction for each athlete.
Interested Junior Golfers may register here: https://dreambig.events/fcg-challenger-series/