Golf: Arshvant leads by 4 shots in USKG Malaysian C'ships as 5 Indians in Top 3

Kuala Lumpur, March 6 (IANS) Arshvant Srivastava of India blazed the Glenmarie Golf and Country Club with the day’s best card of 3-under 69 in the Boys 13-14 age category on the opening day of the US Kids Malaysian Championships.

It was a fine opening day for the seven-member Indian squad. While Arshvant led his group, four other Indians were in Top-3 after the first day of the three-day event which carries WAGR points and grants Priority points for entry into US Kids World Championships and European Championships later in the year.

The 14-year-old Arshvant, whose coach Amit Dubey was with him, shot 69 with five birdies against two bogeys, the second of which came on the tricky 18th hole at the 6,256-yard course. He birdied second, sixth, ninth, 13th and 17th, while he dropped shots on eighth and 18th.

Arshvant led two Korean boys Woosung Sun (73) and Geon Kang (74) by four and five shots respectively.

Two other Indians, Sohang Har Kantor (79) and Ved Sai Machiraju (85) were T-7 and T-14 respectively.

Divjot Gupta (40) was lying second behind Clifton Michael Lumy of Indonesia (39) while another Indian Ruslaan Alam Khan (44) was third in Boys 8 and Under category.

Jot Sarup Gupta (77) was second four shots behind leader Aaron Zhang of China (73) in Boys 10 and under.

In the Girls 13-14 category Kriti Parekh was lying second with a round of 83 and the leader was Wang Enxi (76).

A total of 106 junior golfers from 16 countries, including 37 players from Malaysia, are competing in the three-day tournament.

The US Kids Malaysian Championships is the first regional Nationals under the US Kids umbrella in Asia this year. It will be followed by more such events in Thailand, Singapore and India.