Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: More than 100 junior golfers from 16 countries will showcase their talent in a competitive yet fun environment during the inaugural US Kids Golf Malaysian Championship presented by Mazda, which tees off at Glenmarie Golf & Country Club on March 5-7.
Organised by the Foundation for Malaysian Sporting Excellence, SportExcel in short, the championship will be played at Glenmarie’s Garden Course, which was the venue for the Ryder Cup-style professional match play EurAsia Cup from 2014 to 2018.
The juniors will compete in eight age categories for boys (15-18, 13-14, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7 & Under) and five age categories for girls (15-18, 13-14, 11-12, 9-10, 8 & Under).
Taking in mind the average hitting distances for players in each category, the championship will see multiple tees in play with a carefully calculated length progression from the youngest to the eldest.
US Kids Golf was formed in 1996 as an equipment company producing clubs tailored in weight and design for children from as young as five. The first US Kids Golf tournament was staged in the year 2000 and there are currently more than 1,600 events each year in 85 markets. The championships fall under the purview of the US Kids Golf Foundation, which was set up in 2001 to help children learn golf by training coaches, developing child-friendly programmes and organising tournaments.
Each US Kids Golf event allows participants to earn and improve their Priority Status, which will enable them to enter the bigger events in the franchise – including the jewels in the crown, the US Kids Golf World Championships and US Kids Golf World Teen Championship at Pinehurst Resort in North Carolina later this year.
The US Kids Golf Malaysian Championship is the culmination of six one-day US Kids Golf Malaysia events staged in late 2023, which were designed for fledgling competitive juniors to hone their skills in a fun environment. A total of 59 players qualified for the finale from the local events. This year, the local series will be expanded to 18 events from May to July, comprising six in each of three zones – Northern, Central and Sabah.
SportExcel has been running its own nationwide junior golf circuit since 1992, which now includes elite and international events that carry World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR) points. The foundation’s Executive Director, C. Sivanandan, noted that the US Kids Golf events enabled them to reach out to more young golfers who were just starting out competitively.
“The US Kids Golf Malaysian Championship is a further boost to junior golf development, locally as well as regionally. SportExcel sees the US Kids Golf tournaments as a platform to grow and develop grass-roots players from as young as five in a fun yet competitive environment. At the same time, the elite players can use this platform to improve their Priority Status to qualify and play in international championships in other parts of the world,” said Sivanandan.
