Daily Times

LAHORE: The golf teams of eight distinguished and notable clubs of the country are up against each other in an intense and spirited contest for illustriousness, prestige, elevation and cash rewards and the playing arena is the august 7089 yards long, par 72 Rumanza Golf and Country Club Golf Course. These clubs are Karachi Golf Club, Airmen Golf Club, Defence Housing Authority Golf Club, Garrison Golf Club, Lahore Gymkhana, Rawalpindi Golf Club, Garden City, Islamabad and Rumanza Golf Club who are hosting this All Pakistan Club Championship. In accordance with the laid down format, the teams of each club comprise of four national level amateurs, three senior amateurs and three professionals with three best scores of amateurs to count for consideration, two best scores of senior amateurs to be considered and similarly two best scores for professionals. In the first round, Lahore Garrison accumulated a gross team score of 529, while Karachi Club was placed second at a gross team score of 532, followed by Lahore Gymkhana Club at 535, Rumanza Club and Rawalpindi Club bunched together at 539. Other clubs lagging behind were DHA Karachi at 544, Airmen at 550 and Garden City at 567.

Regarding the individual performances on the first day, the professional players of Lahore Garrison proved to be most useful for their team with steady individual scores that helped to elevate their teams’ position to an elevated level. Matloob Ahmed had a round of gross 72 as did M Alam who was equally steady with a similar score of gross 72. Amateur category player Damil Ataullah produced an under par score of gross 70, and his team mates Ahmed Sultan Kayani and Usman Akram Sahi had rounds of gross 78 each. And their senior amateur team mates contributed a gross 78 by Tariq Mehmood and gross 80 by M Shafi. In the fight for success Lahore Garrison was in the forefront.

For Karachi Club, the principal performers were Mudasir Iqbal 73, Waheed Baloch 74 in the professionals section and amateur Saim Shazli an 18 years old A Level student came up with gross 76, alongwith Yashal Shah gross 76 and Samir Feroze gross 79. Out of the senior amateurs, Asad IA Khan was impressive and contributed a rational score of gross 77. The second senior also played 77. They certainly helped Karachi Club to be well placed at the conclusion of the first round. Lahore Gymkhana was placed third and their team members Shahid Javed, Aadil Jehangir, Salman, Qasim Ali Khan, Hussain Hamid and seniors Omer Javed Zia and Asim Tiwana combined well to keep their team in contention. Fourth placed teams Rumanza Club and Rawalpindi Club seek to improve on their performance during the second round. Remarkable golf is expected over the remaining two rounds.