Move over the Golfing legends, there’s a new wonder kid on the block. Meet 8-year-old Arshvant Srivastava, who’s caught the eyes along with other established Golfing stars.

Playing in gusty conditions at the challenging Longniddry Golf Club, the young gun edged out in the closing stages of the third and final round of the US Kids Golf European Championships 2018 as he finished a creditable tied-second on Thursday.

He had back-to-back birdies on second and third holes and added a third birdie on the sixth. Twice on the seventh and ninth, his birdie putt stopped the edge of the hole, even as the local Gullane-golfer Lawson birdied the final hole to win the title.

Arshvant exudes oodles of confidence and displays skills whenever he’s on the greens. In an exclusive interaction with 4moles.com, Amit Dube, his coach and a former professional Golfer, enthuses, “He was really, really close and missed it by a whisker. Arshvant was indeed disheartened initially and now is more motivated to achieve bigger goals.”

When 4moles.com caught up with father Rajesh Srivastava, he said, “Though I inspired Arshvant to take up the game, his coach has a bigger role to play in his mentoring.”

He asserts he isn’t a pushy father, the sort of overambitious parent who thrusts his unrequited dreams on his children. “Pressure is the last thing I do. I know my son has set certain goals in mind works accordingly. It’s good that Arshvant has got exposure on international circuits at this age. It gives different aspiring golfers a more comprehensive grounding in the game as the players learn to battle it out in different weather conditions,” says the doting father.

Clearly, the current crop of young guns is moving at an unprecedented pace. They certainly like to stay ahead of the curve to beat the fierce competition.