LAHORE: The annual golf calendar, masterminded by the Pakistan Golf Federation, the provincial golf bodies of Sindh, Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhaw, Balcchistan and Federal Capital, in cohesion with the golf club managements all across the country, yielded lively and spirited activity throughout the year 2022. Competitive golf involving the professionals of enormous merit was sufficiently vigorous and financial earnings and rewards accruing therefrom were sizeable and the top performers reaped pocketful of benefits. The star of the Pakistan national golf scene again remained Mohammad Shabbir Iqbal, who attained elevated spots in most of the Open Golf Championships and as a consequence found his financial standing upgraded to an admirable level. A few others who came up with high calibre performances were champions like Mohammad Munir, Matloob Ahmed, Hamza Taimur Amin, Waheed Baloch, Mohammad Ashfaq, Khalid Khan, Mohammad Saqib, Mohammad Shahzad, Abdul Zahoor, Mohammad Alam and Ahmad Baig. Through their zest and buoyancy during the course of golf events, they remained amongst the front runners and prize money takings were uplifting and augmenting. An outstanding one was the exhilarated Ahmad Baig, who capped off the year through a soaring performance that hoisted him as the Pakistan Open champion.
As for the second tier golf professionals, the Jinnah Development Tour matches, introduced by the Pakistan Golf Federation and provincial golf bodies, served as preludes to golfing advancement for them and quite a few capable ones utilized the window of opportunity to glowing advantage. Besides the eminent golf professionals and the second tier professionals, those who availed ascendancy through golf competitions were the senior golf professionals, junior golf professionals, the amateur category players and the marvelous women who made it a point to prove their urge for development and enlargement of their progress. Prominent names from amongst the amateurs were Salman Jahangir, Qasim Ali Khan, Saad Habib, Damil Ataullah. Noteworthy ones in the women’s category were Parkha Ijaz, Rimsha Ijaz, Hamna Amjad, Suneya Osama, Aania Farooq and Amina Tiwana.
An outstanding characteristic of Mother Nature in Pakistan is that the country enjoys a favorable climate for about ten months, which enables the game of golf to make strides and bloom. The golf courses in Punjab are effervescent all twelve months as are the golf courses in Khyber Pakhtunkhaw and Islamabad. For the golf playing diplomats, the golf courses of Islamabad provide allurement and magnetism and these diplomats adore the playing sessions whenever they swing their golf clubs. It is pertinent to highlight here that apart from Balochistan, where the winters are severe, the rest of Pakistan is a vast golf course capable of enchanting the golf lovers.
There are a large number of golf courses affiliated with the PGF and the provincial golf associations. These courses are spread all over the country. Whereas the bigger cities like Karachi, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Islamabad and Peshawar take pride in having more than one golf course, the smaller cities feel content with just one. Prestigious courses like the Arabian Sea Country Club Golf Course in Karachi, the DHA and Karachi Golf Club Golf Courses in the same city, the Royal Palm Golf Course in Lahore and the Lahore Gymkhana Golf Course and the Defence Raya Golf and Country Club Golf Course, can be equated with the best in Asia. The total number of golf courses is 49 with five more coming up. And the big development this year was the inauguration of the Rumanza Golf Course in Multan designed by the golf icon Sir Nick Faldo. This golf course managed to captivate and fascinate England cricketers during the course of their visit to Multan. It is hoped that the year 2023 will see international golf encounters taking place at the world class Rumanza Golf Course in Multan.
The year 2022 was also election year for the Pakistan Golf Federation. Lt Gen (r) Qazi Muhammad Ikram was elected as the President. Other elected office bearers were AVM Tariq Mehmood Ghazi (Vice President), Khurram Khan (Vice President) and Brig (r) Sajid Akram (Honorary Secretary) plus members of the Executive Committee. International golf has been missing from Pakistan during 2022 and expectations are that the new team at PGF will focus on this aspect during the year 2023.