Daily Times

KARACHI: At the end of the second round of the three rounds DHA Open Golf Championship, being contested at the appealing Defence Housing Authority Country and Golf Club Golf Course in Karachi, the golf professional whose name appeared up front on Thursday was Muhammad Munir of Rawalpindi Golf Club. By all means a top performer of the country’s national golf circuit, Munir played exceptionally high quality golf during the 18 holes yesterday to secure for himself the top position on the leaderboard. It is pertinent to mention that Munir is up against mighty Shabbir Iqbal, awesome Ahmed Baig, high achiever Matloob Ahmed and some very talented ones like M Shahzad, Usman Ali and Muhammad Naeem.

Munir looked all set for a glorious victory after scoring under par rounds in the first two days of competitive race. Munir played 68 in the first round and backed this up with a still more majestic 66 on Thursday. His aggregate for two rounds was sublime and striking. Managing a score of ten under par in an open championship where the playing field is full of worthy players is commendatory and goes to show how adroit and masterly out top golf professionals are.

Shabbir Iqbal was placed two strokes behind Munir with two rounds aggregate of (68+68)136, eight under par and without doubt has the capacity to transcend him over the final 18 holes. And assuredly same applies to young Ahmed Baig who was placed at two rounds score of 137, seven under par. Others placed well were Matloob Ahmed (Lahore Garrison) at 138, Shahid Javed Khan (Lahore Gymkhana) at 142 and also at 142 was M Shahzad (Lahore Garrison). And lying at one under par 143 were Usman Ali (Lahore Garrison) and M Naeem (Peshawar). The DHA Open Golf Championship which concludes on Friday (today) carries a prize money of Rs 14 million.