Sky is the limit for Kshitij

PUNE: From playing with a 'cut club' in his backyard as a two-year-old to winning titles week after week in the junior golf circuit, Kshitij Naveed Kaul has come a long way. The 14-year-old from Delhi took another major step on the golf course this week when he became the only amateur to make the cut in the PGTI-sanctioned Western India Oxford Masters here.
The son of Navy Commander Sanjay Kaul, Kshitij capped his remarkable run on the first three days (70-72-72) with an even-par 72 to finish with 2-under 286 for tied 16th at the Oxford Golf and Country Club on Friday.
"I was 4-under (overall) but bogeyed and double-bogeyed the last two holes. But I am happy as it is much better this week," grinned the teenager, who had a similar below-par outing in the final round last week as well, in a junior event at the same venue. The creditable show in his first ever professional event helped him bag the inaugural Raj Kumar Pitamber Trophy for the best performing amateur at the Rs 30 lakh prize money event. More than a decade ago, when they were stationed in Visakhapatnam, the Kauls would start from their home at 3 am and drive 40 km to East Point Club where Kshitij would learn the basics of the game from his father.

"We had made a small green in our backyard where he could play with a cut club when he was two.But then he started hitting 30-yard drivers and we had to take him to a course," says Kshitij's mother Vineeta, who travels with him now.
In 2006-07, he was briefly under the tutelage of Vijay Divecha - who has produced many top pros including Anirban Lahiri ­ in Bengaluru before the family moved to Delhi. The one-year stint Kshitij had at Eagleton Club also coincided with Lahiri winning the Asian Games team silver in Doha. And Divecha's other wards Chikarangappa and Abhishek Jha were the top junior players then.
Naturally, the six foot-tall lad feels a connect with his former coach and seniors. "He respects Divecha sir. The base, the set-up that Divecha had given him are still there," mother Vineeta said.