Gurugram, Nov 2 (IANS): A total of eight young golfers across 14 categories will attempt to complete a hat-trick of wins as the third leg of the US Kids Golf India gets underway at the Golden Greens Golf Club on Thursday.

Seven other players featuring in the third leg have won once in one of the two legs played so far.

With another large group of players having signed up for the third and fourth legs of the series, the youngsters are looking to accumulate Priority Level status for the US Kids Europe and World Championships and the American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) stars, which helps them get into numerous international events.

The Indian Championship, scheduled from November 23-25 at the Classic Golf and Country Club, will have World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR) points. Players shooting 72 and below in at least two Local Tour events will earn Level 11 status and will earn AJGA Performance Star.

The US Kids local Tour is the only tournament giving opportunity to Players to earn AJGA Stars.

The players looking to go on to make it a treble are Amaira Gulati of Lucknow (Girls Under 8) and Mahreen Bhatia of Gurgaon (Girls 13-14).

Among boys, those looking for a third win in as many starts are Nihal Cheema of Chandigarh (Boys Under-6), Kabir Goyal of NOIDA (Boys Under-7), Jot Sarup Gupta of Jalandhar (Boys Under-8), Adit Veeramachaneni of Bengaluru (Boys Under-9), Chaitanya Pandey of Delhi (Boys Under-11) and Manyaveer Bhadoo of Chandigarh (Boys 15-18).

As usual, the group for Boys 13-14 will have the maximum entries followed by those in Boys Under 12. There are a total of five age groups for girls and nine for boys.

Rajesh Srivastava, President of US Kids Golf India, said, "It is heartening to see so many winners from the past two events come back despite their busy schedules to add to their experience. We look forward to making them young champions by getting them to play age-specific yardages on top class courses and we see Golden Greens and Classic Golf and Country Club as two very prestigious and well-maintained courses in North India."

Amit Dube, the Tournament Director, a former professional and now a coach, added, "Many of these youngsters will get status to get to the US Kids Europe and World Championships and play some of the best courses in the world get an experience which is so rare at this young age. It will prepare them for the big challenges as they grow in the game."

As many as 50 youngsters have entered the tournament, which will be played at the challenging Golden Greens. The third leg will be followed by the fourth leg on Friday, November 4. The numbers have touched 50 despite examinations looming large for a good number of young golfers.

The third and fourth legs will be followed by the Indian Championships at the Classic Golf and Country Club and then two more one-day events will take place in December.