9-year-old Mohali golfer finishes 5th, meets four champions

Kahlon, whose father Guramardeep Singh is a Merchant Navy officer and mother Akalkala a homemaker, had started golf at the age of four and would accompany her elder sister Rabab to the Mohali Golf Range. The youngster would then start training at the Chandigarh Golf Association Range under coach Mahesh Kumar. In recent years, Kahlon has won Junior Africa Challenge in her category in Durban, South Africa, in 2022 and also was a winner of National Inter-School Golf Trophy at Bengaluru in her age category. Kahlon had played her first amateur competition as its youngest participant in the 30th Punjab Open Ladies Amateur Tournament at Chandigarh Golf Tournament last year. The youngster had qualified for the Drive Chip and Putt National Finals by getting an invite for one of the 348 local qualifiers in the USA and won in the 7-9 age category, followed by a win in one of the 62 sub-regional qualifiers before becoming one of the top ten golfers in 7-9 age group to compete in the event, which saw a total of 80 golfers competing.

“When she came to train at CGA range, we had to work on her swing as well as driving. She was a naturally good putter so we would also spend time on getting her to finetune the putting skills. At Augusta, driving as well as chipping and putting plays a key role over the greens to be in contention and this overall fifth place will motivate her a lot,” said coach Mahesh Kumar.

Kahlon was accompanied by her mother Akalkala to Augusta. The fifth standard student of Manav Rachna International School in Mohali will now be competing in Indian Golf Union tournaments apart from competing in European Junior Golf Championships in Scotland in May later this year. “In USA, my maternal uncle Mehraj Singh along with my mother were my pillars of strength while my father would follow the scores online. My next target is IGU tournaments apart from European Junior Golf Championships,” said Kahlon.