Expecting next Atwal from Nepal

KATHMANDU, Sept 9: India´s Arjun Atwal won the title of the Wyndham Championship in the USA last month. Atwal, who has been playing professional golf for the last 17 years, used to take golfing lessons from Brandon De Souza in Kolkata during his early days in golf.



"He has gone through a long career and struggle to achieve the success," said Brandon about his compatriot and expressed his dream of producing the next Atwal from Nepal.[break]



Brandon, the coach for youth program in Nepal, was sharing his dream during a press meet organized to inform about the Surya Nepal NGA Golf Coaching Program at the Gokarna Golf Resort in Kathmandu. Nepal Golf Association (NGA) has picked six young golfers for sponsorship after a year-long coaching.



Ashish Pariyar, Sanjeeb CK and Bikash Bogati have been selected for the gold tier sponsorship, where each player will get Rs 3,000 monthly for six months. Likewise, Dinesh Prajapati, Kamal Thapa and Kamal Tamang will receive Rs 1,500 per month in the silver tier sponsorship deal. All the six young golfers will also get golf sets, balls and food and beverage facility in golf clubs throughout Nepal. Surya Nepal will sponsor their golf tours.



"I dream big and want to see the next Atwal from Nepal," said Brandon. "The young boys are doing their best to give shape to the dream. I´m happy with their progress," he added.



He said that it is time for Nepali golfers to think about winning medals at the South Asian and Asian levels.



NGA President Tashi Ghale said the youth program targets Olympic medals in 2016. "We target the Olympic medals in 2016 and gold medals in South Asia and Asia," said Ghale. "We will start second session of coaching in October for next year," he added.



Surya Nepal´s vice-president of Marketing LB Singh and Marketing Manager Dheeraj Hajarika congratulated the selected golfers at the function.



NGA had selected the six from among nine young golfers after a year-long coaching in different clubs of Kathmandu, Pokhara and Dharan. Aanchhu Limbu, Michael Rai and Shankar Baniya could not make the cut for the sponsorship deal. According to NGA, the three golfers can try next season.



All the selected golfers were once ball-boys in different courses. "We are all happy. We got the unexpected opportunity and we´ll utilize it," said Dinesh Prajapati.

Related story

Duchess of Sussex expecting 2nd child, a sibling for Archie