Krishnav Nikhil Chopra did not follow the footsteps of his father and the decision does seem to have paid off. The 17-year old Krishnav, son of former India cricketer Nikhil Chopra, capped a terrific outing as an amateur golfer at the Pune Open.
Krishnav came up with a hole-in-one in the final round of the Rs 40 lakh PGTI Tour Event at the Poona Club course on December 4.
Krishnav found the flag on the par-316th en route to a final-round 67 and finished tied 26th overall at 2-over 181. This turned out to be his maiden cut in just his second professional tournament.
“There were two groups ahead of us on the course, so I sat down for 10-12 minutes, which gave me time to think about the process,” Krishnav was quoted as saying to Times of India.
“I just stuck to my routine and the golfing gods smiled on me,” he added.
Krishnav’s association with sports is not totally astounding. Krishnav’s paternal grandfather Harinder Singh was an international volleyball player and his father Nikhil Chopra was an off-spinner and a handy batsman.
It would be wrong to assume that golf is the only game that Krishnav has ever played and that list includes cricket too but surprisingly he did not fall in love with the game. Krishnav does explain the reason for that also.
“I played a variety of sports- cricket, squash and football. I did not enjoy cricket that much.
“It was because of the pressure. As a batsman, I did not want to be on the field for four hours to get my turn to play,” Krishnav explained.
Krishnav’s father Nikhil Chopra had played 39 ODIs and one Test match for the Indian team. Nikhil has 310 runs and 46 wickets in ODIs.
