The Final Match Play round of the IGU RCGC Junior Boys Golf Championship commenced at 7:15 am at the Royal Calcutta Golf Club, Kolkata, with Chandigarh’s Harjai Milkha Singh and Krish Chawla, facing each other in competition.

After tough competition against Anshh Dubey and Neil Jolly in the Semi-Final Match Play round, Harjai and Krish qualified for the Final Match play round. As finalists, the excitement of the competition as well as the pressure to display the best spirit of the game prevailed between both the finalists.

A neck-to-neck competition was seen during the Final Match Play round, where Krish Chawla was seen to be in hot pursuit of Harjai Milkha Singh. Though Krish’s performance was worth appreciation, Harjai Milkha Singh finished the round at 4&3 after H14, and clinched victory in the IGU RCGC Junior Boys Golf Championship 2025.

The week long IGU RCGC Junior Boys Golf Championship 2025 was a unique tournament because of its format that has never been followed for any junior tournament. RCGC surely was witness to a historic tournament, where the participants of A&B Boys played two rounds of stroke-play followed by a total of five rounds of Match Play to finally decide the winner on November 2.

Chandigarh’s Neil Jolly had won the Stroke-Play Qualifiers, followed by Harjai Milkha Singh, the winner of the IGU RCGC Junior Boys Golf Championship 2025, who finished second in the Stroke Play Qualifiers.

Meanwhile, the participants of C Boys played three rounds of stroke-play, and Karnataka’s Adit Veeramachaneni won Category C Boys.

“I followed my process and kept the ball on the fairway and put it on the green, as I had done on all the days of the tournament. I rolled the putt well on good. Harjai is a really good golfer, so I wish him all the best”.

Sharing the strategy that led to his win, Harjai, the winner of the IGU RCGC Junior Boys Golf Championship 2025, said, “I tried my level best to play my best game. My only strategy was to keep the ball on the fairway and roll as many putts as I can, just like Krish, who has been putting up tough competition against me. I am thankful to IGU for bringing up such an absolutely amazing and phenomenal concept of a match-play tournament for junior boys. It is absolutely amazing because we junior boys don’t get a lot of chances to play match-play tournaments”.

Harjai Milkha Singh receiving his prize from RCGC Captain, Indrajit Bhalotia

Looking back at the Final Match Play round, Harjai added, “A lot of good putts made, the putt on 15^th, the winning putt, being the best. Sticking to the process the entire week has led to the win and made me confident. I am very happy with the way I played, and I really wish to continue playing like this. I am going to play the Eastern India and West Bengal Junior Boys Tournament in the upcoming days. So, I am trying to keep working on my game the same way and follow the process that I have been following in the past few days”.

Tournament Director of the Indian Golf Union (IGU), the apex body of golf in India, Paramjit Singh said, “This tournament was the first time where we had a match play for the junior boys. The field was good, with Harjai. Neil, Danish, Krish and so many more talented junior golfers which made the field very competitive. I am sure IGU will want to continue the junior boys’ match play and encourage them to play more of these tournaments and encourage golf among juniors. So, this tournament will definitely make a place on the IGU Calendar. All the players did their best job on the course over the week”.

Indrajit Bhalotia, Captain, Royal Calcutta Golf Club, said, “The tournament was well contested, and the top juniors of the country got the first taste of match play, which will go a long way in creating mentally stronger golfers, as they will learn golf course strategies which are generally not used in the stroke-play format”.