Junior Golf
The recently concluded inaugural tournament of the all girls Birdies Golf Tour hosted by Karma Lakelands, Gurgaon, saw more than 30 talented girls ages 9 to 19 turn up the temperature a little higher with their exceptional golf over the 5 rounds in 4 days. The Birdies Golf Tour is a girls only golf tour run by Faisal Qureshi, co-founder of Little Master Junior Golf Tour and Young Master Amateur Golf Tour. This inaugural event was a World amateur ranked event with 4 World ranked amateurs playing and participation from Mumbai, Chandigarh, & Ahmedabad apart from the Delhi NCR region. Lady professionals Arjuna Awardee Nonita Lall Qureshi, Sehr Atwal and Mehar Atwal hit the Inaugural tee shot and launched the new Tour.
The format of the event was Matchplay where the first 2 rounds on 10th and 11th were played as 36 holes stroke play qualifier to select the top 8 girls who were to play 3 rounds of Matchplay in 2 days.
The 2 day stroke play qualifier produced under par scores by 3 players , Manya Saini from Ahmedabad with rounds of 68-66 (6 under) won the qualifier to be seeded No 1 for the matchplay event, other girls to make it in the top 8 were Jia Kataria from Chandigarh 76-65( 1 over), Nishna Patel from Mumbai 74-67 (1 over), Khushi Hooda 74-70 (4 over), Sharanya Sah 75-72 (7 over), Prarthana Khanna 75-73 (8 over), Yashita Raghav 74-74 (8 over) and Anvvi Dahhiya 74-75 (9 over) making the 8th spot. Special mention for Prarthana and Anvvi who were the young brigade, both 13 year olds to make it to the knockout stage.
Also special mention to Naina Kapoor and Annika Chendira both who were 9 years old playing in the junior most age division and playing 9 holes each day. Naina improved her score each day 42-39-38 while Annika played 3 rounds of 49.
Birdies Golf Tour – Matchplay results
The Match Play began on the 12th with the Manya Saini (seed 1)vs Anvvi Dahhiya (seed 8), Khushi Hooda (seed 4) vs Sharanya Sah (seed 5), Nishna Patel (seed 3) vs Prarthana Khanna (seed6) & Jia Kataria (seed 2) vs Yashita Raghav (seed 7).
Nonita Lall Qureshi (L) & Nishna Patel (3rd in Age 14-15)
Nishna beat Prarthana 3up and Jia beat Yashita 5 & 3, but the other 2 matches were closer than expected, where Manya Saini beat Anvvi Dahhiya on the 18th while Khushi Hooda had to go 22 holes before defeating Sharanya Sah.
All was set for the 13th where the girls, if they won their semi-final match, would be playing the final on the same day thus playing 36 holes. The girls who lost in the Quarter-Finals on the 12th played the subsidiary matchplay Semi-Final.
The Final day started with Manya Saini, winner of the stroke play qualifier taking on Khushi Hooda, former Indian amateur champion, and Nishna, our Mumbai player taking on Jia from Chandigarh. Manya’s and Khushi’s match was a see-saw battle with both playing terrific golf and till the 16th the score was all square but with Manya missing a small putt on the 17th gave Khushi a chance and they halved the 18th to see Khushi win 1 up. The other semi-final was a bit of an easy win for Nishna who beat Jia 4 & 3. The subsidiary match play event saw Anvvi Dahhiya vs Sharanya Sah and Prarthana Khanna vs Yashit Raghav.Both Anvvi and Prarthana gave a great fight to their older opponents but the experience of the older girls came in handy on the last few holes.Sharanya won 3 & 2 while Prarthana narrowly lost 1 down.
The afternoon Finals saw Khushi take on Nishna and Jia take on Manya for the 3rd place . The subsidiary Final was played between Sharanya and Yashita.
The match between Khushi and Nisha saw both players being tentative as there were some nerves,on the 4th hole Nishna made a birdie and that started a run of winning 3 holes in a row from the 4th to 6th. That settled her nerves and was tough for Khushi to make a return but still fought hard and eventually Nishna won 3 & 2. The 3rd place honors went to Jia Kataria 4 & 3. The subsidiary Finals between Sharanya and Yashita was a tense match , Yashita was 3 up after 9 holes and stayed 3 up after12 holes, but than on the 15th hole Yashita made a long putt and from there on Yashita’s putter was hot and she won 2 of the last 3 holes to make the match all square on the 18th and managed to keep her nerves and win the Subsidiary Finals on the 19th hole.
The Winners in various Age categories
36 Hole Qualifier
16 years and over
Khushi Hooda 1st
Yashita Raghav 2nd
Agrima Manral 3rd
14-15 years
Manya Saini 1st
Jia Kataria 2nd
Nishna Patel 3rd
12-13 years
Prarthana Khanna 1st
Anvvi Dhaiyya 2nd
Zara Anand 3rd
10-11 years
Shiksha Jain 1st
8-9 years
Naina Kapoor 1st
Annika Chendira 2nd
36 Hole Nett Competition
Manya Saini 1st
Vanya Bansal 2nd
Yashita Raghav 3rd
18 Hole Non-Qualifier age group top players
16 years and over
Tanisha Kalyan 1st
Agrima Manral 2nd
Renee Rane 3rd
14-15 years
Lavanya Jadon 1st
Vanya Bansal 2nd
Preitisha Kaur Gill 3rd
12-13 years
Zara Anand 1st
Alysha Dutt 2nd
Mahreen Bhatia 3rd
10-11 years
Shiksha Jain 1st