he youngster, who had started playing golf at the age of four, is currently placed second in the IGU Category B rankings.
Neil Jolly in Chandigarh. (Jasbir Malhi )
Last week when 14-year-old Chandigarh golfer Neil Jolly finished as a runner-up in the FCG World Junior Golf Championship in California, the Chandigarh golfer had to face the challenge of playing on two different golf courses over three rounds. With the tournament happening on Marriott Desert Springs and Valley Springs, the youngster had his task cut out. Jolly carded an overall score of six under-par to finish second behind J Hu.
“Playing over the two courses in the three rounds was the main challenge. The first day saw us playing over Valley Greens Course, followed by two rounds at Desert Palms course. The Valley course saw the greens playing slightly slower and tackling those was the challenge. Apart from that, heat was the challenge and I had to adjust,” said Jolly.
The youngster, who had started playing golf at the age of four, is currently placed second in the IGU Category B rankings. Jolly had finished third in the Indian Golf Union Southern India Juniors at Coimbatore, followed by a second place finish in category B and second overall in Category A and B in the IGU Tamil Nadu Junior Golf tournament at Clover Greens.
“Playing on the IGU circuit means that I get to play on different golf courses and face the challenging conditions. Finishing at third place and second place at Coimbatore and Bengaluru gave me a boost ahead of a shift to Category A. The focus will be on getting a good start in Category A,” said Jolly.
The youngster trains under coach Jesse Grewal and has been a keen follower of Swedish golfer Ludwig Aberg apart from Indian American golfer Akshay Bhatia. “I have been following Ludwig Aberg apart from Indian American Akshay Bhatia. I followed Ludwig’s round during the Dessert Classic in Dubai last year and also followed Akshay Bhatia over TV during all the four Majors. They have been an inspiration for youngsters,” said Jolly.