Aadil Bedi and Shubham Jaglan shining stars of Indian junior golf

The boys are coming along nicely, heralding a bright future for golf in India. The game is looking up in the wake of some brilliant performances by Anirban Lahiri and SSP Chawrasia in recent years. More importantly, it is the steady stream of young golfers that is the most promising development. Aadil Bedi and Shubham Jaglan are taking their talents global and sounding the bugle without any fear.

The two young men are leading a generation of developing golfers that could potentially emulate the heroics of great golfers such as Jeev Milkha Singh, Arjun Atwal, Lahiri and Chawrasia.

Indian golf caught an upwind on the sails, courtesy of some outstanding performances by Lahiri last season. The 62^ndranked Indian earned a full PGA TOUR card, besides finishing T5 at the PGA Championship last year. It was the best ever performance by an Indian golfer at a major tournament.

A year later, stories abound about the consistent success of Bedi and Jaglan, who have both blazed a trail on the world stage of junior golf. The two young men were it again this week, taking Las Vegas by storm with some sensational golf in the World Stars of Junior Golf 2016.

True to the name of the event, both Bedi (Boys 15-16) and Jaglan (Boys 11-12) played exceptionally well in their respective categories to contend for the title.

In fact Bedi had a solid six shot cushion going into the final round, but a nervous effort on Thursday, saw him post a 74 and lose the title by two strokes. Canadian Marco Trstenjak produced an inspired 66 in the third round to snatch the title with a stupendous come from behind effort.

In the 11-12 year category, Shubham Jaglan produced solid consistency through the three rounds to finish second at the tournament. The boy from Haryana was trailing Wit Pitipat by ten strokes heading into the final round.

Jaglan (70-69-66) showed remarkable poise in the final round to sign off with a spectacular 66. He managed to cut the deficit to six shots, but the Thai boy, Pitipat (64-65-70) had built up an enormous gap with rounds of 64 and 65 on the first two days. In the end he needed just a 70 to clinch victory.

Both Aadil and Shubham seemed to adapt brilliantly well to the American course and even though the Chandigarh boy lost his way in the final round, it was a commendable performance in one of biggest junior tournaments in the world.

Readers will remember that Shubham shot to fame when he won the Junior World Golf Championships in 2015. The young boy learnt the game in the fields of Israna, forcing his milkman father to search for greener pastures in Delhi.

Bedi on the other hand has been groomed for golf, raised in Chandigarh, the cradle of the game in our country. Aadil has been consistently topping the Indian Golf Union’s junior order of merit for over three years now.

With 18 year old Aditi Ashok already earning a full Ladies European Tour card and entry to the Olympics along with Anirban and Chawrasia, it is clear that Indian golf is set to be in good hands for years to come.