Mangalorean Rigel Fernandes Wins All India Junior Golf Title
Media Release
Bangalore, Dec 30: Mangalorean Rigel Fernandes playing his first competitive tournament in India has won the All India Junior Golf Tournament held at the Eagleton Golf Club in Bangalore from Monday December 27 to Thursday December 30.
Rigel won the category B (under 15 years) by a huge margin of 13 shots by scoring a total of 291 over 4 rounds of 72, 71, 78 and 70. Rigel was the 2nd runner-up overall (under 18 years) and gave a tough fight to the reigning amateur champion of India S Chikkarangappa (Chikka) who finally won the category A.
After the final round, Chikka said that this was the first time that he was paired with a category B player and he was impressed by the quality of golf played by the 14-year-old Rigel who created sensation by leading the overall categories in the first two days and only had one bad day with a 6 over par. While it was home turf for Chikka, Rigel’s game stunned one and all not just for his age but for the exceptional skills that he displayed in spite of his inexperience on this challenging golf course.
C S Shetty, the tournament director from the Indian Golf Union said that with players of the caliber of Rigel playing, this tournament has increased the quality of the competition and raised the bar for the Indian Juniors. Last year the category B winner had scored 30 over par for four days while this year Rigel scored just three over par for the tournament.
Manu Gandas was a distant second at 304 in the category B followed by Shivaren Srinivas with a total of 305.
Rigel who has won several national and international junior golf tournaments including a third place in the US Kids World Teen Golf championship trains at the IMG Leadbetter Golf Academy in Florida, USA.
The All India Junior Tournament conducted by the Indian Golf Union is the premier junior golf tournament in India and is sponsored by Toyota and Rolex.