SHAH ALAM – The US Kids Golf Malaysian Championship 2024 scheduled from March 5 to 7 at the Glenmarie Golf and Country Club here, will serve as a platform for junior players in the country to earn a ticket to the World Junior Championships in July.
SportsExcel executive director C. Sivanandan said the US Kids Golf tournament organised by SportsExcel with the support of the Youth and Sports Ministry provides an opportunity for talented local junior golfers to excel on the international stage.
He said ultimately, as a junior plays better and moves up the priority status to level 11 or higher, they will get an invitation to play in the world-renowned US Kids Golf World Teen Championship (13 to 18 years old) and US Kids Golf World Championship (5 to 12 years old) in Pinehurst, North Carolina, US.
“SportExcel sees the US Kids Golf tournaments as a platform to grow and develop grassroots players as young as five. At the same time, the better elite players can use this platform to qualify and play in International Championships in other parts of the world.
“As part of SportExcel’s vision of nurturing junior sporting excellence, the programme was expanded to the four corners of Malaysia – running six to eight one-day local tour tournaments in the central, northern and southern zones, as well as East Malaysia last year,” said Sivanandan at a press conference held at the Glenmarie Golf and Country Club, here today.
Young golfers from these zones can travel a short distance to play a quality tournament against players of their age group and gender in a course set-up to match their hitting distances.
The local tour is made possible with the sponsorship from Bermaz Motor Trading Sdn Bhd, the distributor and retailer of new and pre-owned Mazda marque vehicles and the provision of after-sales services and spare parts in Malaysia.
As the presenter of the Local Tour, Mazda had contributed RM100,000 cash to the tournament last year and that enabled SportExcel to incorporate a cash rebate programme for Malaysian players to help reduce the cost of participation.
Sivanandan added that the tournament held next month will be the final round of the US Kids Golf Malaysia Local Tour 2023 held from October 31 to December 2 last year.
He added that 106 junior golfers, 37 of them from Malaysia, aged between 5 to 18 from 16 countries have qualified for the final round of the prestigious event. – February 27, 2024