AUGUSTA: Gairat Kaur Kahlon wrote a major piece of historical past for Indian golf when she grew to become the primary participant from the nation to qualify for the Drive Chip & Putt Nationwide Finals at Augusta Nationwide Golf Membership.
Gairat Kaur Kahlon of the Ladies 7-9 group competes within the driving self-discipline through the Drive, Chip and Putt Nationwide Finals at Augusta Nationwide Golf Membership (Augusta Nationwide Golf Membership)
The nine-year-old from Mohali was among the many 1000’s of junior golfers who took half within the 348 Native Qualifiers throughout the 50 states in America. She received her 7-9 age class, then received in one of many 62 Sub-Regional Qualifiers, earlier than lastly changing into considered one of solely 10 gamers in her age group to showcase her expertise on the most venerable golf programs on the planet. That too through the week of the Masters.
On Sunday, she grew to become solely the second Indian girl to play at Augusta Nationwide (Avani Prashanth twice featured within the Augusta Nationwide Girls’s Newbie). Solely 4 Indian males – Jeev Milkha Singh, Arjun Atwal, Anirban Lahiri, and Shubhankar Sharma – have performed on the Masters.
Regardless of the importance of her presence right here and performing in entrance of a giant crowd that included a number of superstars of the game, Gairat was by no means overawed by the event, by no means missed a shot and by no means seemed like she wasn’t having fun with each second of the competitors.
And but, the competitor in her was disillusioned.
“It’s a very proud moment to be the first Indian at the DCP Finals. I am very happy with the experience, but also slightly disappointed because I really wanted to win the tournament,” stated Gairat, who completed fifth general – seventh in driving, fourth in chipping, and fifth in placing
The street to the DCP Finals was arduous, but it surely grew to become much more so for Gairat and her older sister Rabab. 4 days earlier than they have been leaving for Charlotte in North Carolina to take part within the Native Qualifiers, their automotive was stolen from Jangpura space in New Delhi. The sisters’ golf units have been additionally within the boot. Rabab needed to play the qualifiers with a rental set and did not advance, whereas Gairat used a brand new set of golf equipment.
There have been different challenges as nicely. Gairat, and her coach Mahesh Kumar, have been conscious of how briskly the 18th inexperienced – the place the gamers made their putts – could be. Augusta Nationwide greens are nearly glass-like in comparison with Mohali, which performs to eight on the stimpmeter on a great day. So, for the previous few months, she had been placing on synthetic turf at Chandigarh Golf Affiliation vary.
Gairat took up golf on the age of 4 after accompanying her sister to a golf camp in Mohali.
Mom Akalkala stated her daughter was a pure and wowed everybody together with her pictures from the second she began hitting them. “Probably, she just picked up things subconsciously when Rabab was getting her coaching,” she added.
Akalkala offers all of the credit score to Gairat and her love for golf for what she has achieved, but it surely has been a household affair. Rabab says she is Gairat’s “temporary coach”, and an irritating alarm clock over these previous six months each time her sister felt like sleeping by means of. Akalkala gave up her dental follow and has a ‘full-time job’ of being a journey companion to her daughters. Father Guruamardeep is within the service provider navy and, therefore, the “chief finance officer”. And maternal uncle Mehraj, a resident of Charlotte, performed an important function in scouting info on DCP, registering her nieces, and being the household’s host and the designated chauffeur.
An enormous fan of Nelly Korda’s clean swing, Bryson DeChambeau’s swing velocity and Tiger Woods’ legendary achievements within the sport, Gairat desires to make sure that that is simply the primary of many journeys to Augusta Nationwide.
“I want to be here again. I have a few years left to qualify for the DCP Finals, and then I want to come here and participate in the Augusta National Women’s Amateur,” stated the fourth-class pupil at Manav Rachana College who desires to grow to be a prime skilled golfer on the LPGA and desires of representing India on the Olympics.
Lofty objectives, however Gairat has already made a quick begin in the direction of attaining them.