KATHMANDU, Aug 23: The Nepal Golf Association (NGA) on Thursday launched “Camp of Excellence” for junior golfers, who are training under Surya Nepal NGA Youth Golf Development Program for the last two years.
NGA in association with Surya Nepal Pvt Ltd has been running youth development program, which has an ambitious target of winning a medal in the Asian Games 2014 to be held in Incheon, South Korea.
The Camp of Excellence is currently being held at Gokarna Golf Club, Kathmandu.
According to program coordinator CB Bhandari, young golfers Bikash Bogati, Dinesh Prajapati, Ashish Pariyar and Michael Rai have been selected for the final round of training program and NGA has recently added Bishnu Sharma and Sunil KC as well.
"We called in Sharma and KC as challengers so that the selected players would not feel smug," said NGA General Secretary Tashi Ghale.
NGA and Surya Nepal have been providing necessary training to the selected players so as to make them physically and mentally strong.
Bogati, the current No 1 amateur of the country, has played in the Malaysian Amateur Open in Kuala Lumpur, SAARC Games in Jaipur and South Asian Games in Bangladesh while Prajapati participated in the NCR Cup in Delhi.
Pariyar had participated in the SAARC Games in Jaipur. NGA is preparing to send the selected players for participation in the Thai Amateur Open in October and the Asian Amateur Tournament in Thailand in November.
"The boys used to have scores of 10-over in the past but recently they are scoring even-pars and under-pars. We´ll now focus on consistency and mental fitness," said Coordinator Bhandari. "Our focus now would be to achieve medals in the upcoming Asian Games," he added.
Brandon de Souza, the chef-de-mission of the program said that he is satisfied with the progress the boys have been showing. "They actually look like athletes now. They now have to start beating local pro-golfers and start winning tournaments," said de Souza.
However, NGA General Secretary Ghale asked players to show their dedication toward training program and the game. "We have been providing training scholarship and it is up to the athletes to show their dedication," said Ghale.
Surya Nepal´s Vice President of Marketing LB Singh said chances of Nepal achieving medal are the best in individual sports than team games. "All participants should focus on the Asian Games. Look for some kind of medals in 2014," said Singh.
In the upcoming Asian Games 2014, a total of four golfers would represent Nepal in golf. The top two players from the camp will be automatically qualify for the Asian Games 2013 while the others will have to compete for the top two positions in the NGA Amateur Ranking to secure berths in the team.
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