KATHMANDU: Nepal Golf Association (NGA) and Surya Nepal Pvt Ltd on Saturday launched the Surya Nepal NGA Youth Golf Coaching Programme.

The programme will start in the first week of July with around 100 children in five golf courses — Gokarna Golf Club, Royal Nepal Golf Club (RNGC), Tribhuvan Army Officers’ Golf Club, Himalayan Golf Course and Nirvana Country Club. After the three months of training, the NGA will select 40 children for the second phase begining from the second week of October.

The NGA will then cut down the number to 20 for the Camp of Excellence, which will be conducted by Brandon De Souza, CEO of Tiger Sports Marketing and Golf Consultant, along with local coaches from the first week of November. The top five players, to be selected from a tournament, will get the golf equipments and also earn the opportunities to play in the Surya Nepal Golf Tour events.

“The programme is especially targeted at the local youth (U-12, U-16, U-18) with the objective of identifying potential golfing talent and nurturing them through a tiered-training programme to add to the golfing talent pool of the country,” said Abhijeet Chakraborty Marketing Manager of Surya Nepal at an announcement ceremony today. “As we aim to produce champion golfers in two years time, we accept any one below 20 and there is no limitation in the number of participants at any venue,” said Chakraborty.

Surya Nepal launched the first pro tour in the country two years earlier and this year the Nepal PGA has planned to hold more than 10 events. “We will coordinate with all the clubs and provide the equipments and the balls required for the training,” said NGA General Secretary Tashi Ghale.

To begin with, the organisers held a Trainers’ Training Course conducted by De Souza from July 18-20 at the Gokarna Golf Club. Of the 14 participants, 11 were pros and three amateurs. Deepak Thapa Magar, Ramesh Nagarkoti, Sachin Bhattarai, Rabi Khadka, Rajan Thapa, Sanjaya Lama, Surya Sharma, CB Bhandari, Tashi Ghale, Deepak Acharya, Pashupati Sharma, Maj Madan Gurung, Bhuvan Gurung and Radhe Shyam Thapa attended the training.

The coaches will now hold the training camps at their respective clubs. Suman Sapkota and Mani Rai, who could not attend the training due to strike — will conduct the camp in Dharan.