Kathmandu, June 24

The CMS Junior Golf Development Programme, organised by Nepal Golf Association under the sponsorship of International Society for Medical Education (ISME), kicked off here today.

Coaches Deepak Thapa Magar, Ramesh Nagarkoti and Sachin Bhattarai lent lessons to 25 beginners at the Royal Nepal Golf Club. NGA President Tashi Ghale, General Secretary CB Bhandari and Youth Development Director Deepak Acharya among others also taught the basics of the sport to the participants.

Acharya said the project was launched with the objective of producing champion golfers in the future and also help the underprivileged talents who cannot afford the sport. “We launched the programme today in Kathmandu and we will start similar events in Pokhara and Dharan in a week or two,” said Acharya. “The training camp will be held for 43 weeks and we will organise a total of 10 tournaments in between apart from a grand finale in Kathmandu,” he added.

The NGA had on June 11 signed the sponsorship agreement with the ISME to conduct the junior golf development programme. After the training camps, the NGA will pick 10 to 15 players from all three centres and organise a tournament. “We will select best players after the completion of the one-year cycle and will provide the golfers with training in and outside the country,” Acharya said. “We will give continuity to this project for at least three years as we are targeting at producing quality golfers,” he added.

“Apart from providing training to the players and organising tournaments, the NGA also has plans to send the best players for foreign training. This is an ambitious programme and we are hopeful of producing future champions from this project. We are not hoping for any miracle overnight but we are confident that we will have champion golfers in three to five years time,” Acharya said.

NGA President Ghale said the number of participants would increase in coming days. “I am excited with the participation of young players and I am sure the number will increase from next week,” Ghale added. NGA General Secretary Bhandari urged the participants to follow the instructions of the coaches carefully if they wanted to be a good golfer in future. “We started with the basics of the game on the first day of the camp as it is very important. These young kids need to learn the basics right as they are new to the sport,” he added.