Daily Times

LAHORE: The Pakistan Golf Federation backed Smart City 62nd National Amateur Golf Championship brought glad tidings for Pakistan A as they won the International Team Match by beating players from Sri Lanka as well as Pakistan B at Gymkhana Club here on Thursday. This International Team Match was played over two days (36 holes) and Pakistan A comprising Salman Jehangir and Qasim Ali Khan emerged as the victorious team with two rounds aggregate scores of 300. Their main adversaries from Sri Lanka RAU Akash Priyamantha and MH Chalitha Pushpika had to be content with the runners-up position with a team aggregate score of 308. Pakistan B with team members Omar Khalid and Hussain Hamid also achieved the score of 308 but Sri Lanka were scored second spot as one of their players had a better score in the second round. This was in accordance with the championship rules.

The National Golf Championships are always loaded with twists and turns and in keeping with that pattern the second round of this championship saw quite a few strong aspirants fall out of the race for success as they lost strokes with gay abandon either through inaccurate hitting or lack of crispness in their approach shots to the green. The new leader, at the end of the second round, remained M Shoaib in this four rounds championship. This young man came up with a feast of stroke making and during the 18 holes yesterday, he bore the pressure well and translated his potential into a score that helped him retain top position on the leaderboard. As a leader he had two-round scores of 71 and 73 and an aggregate of 144. Placed three strokes behind him were two relentlessly efficient players Salman Jehangir and Ahmed Zafar Hayat. Salman was at 147 by virtue of two rounds scores of 72 and 75 and Ahmed owed his meritorious position to scores of 76 in the first round and an outstanding 71 in the second round.

Others hoping to stay in the winning loop after their two rounds effort were Chalitha Pushpika of Sri Lanka followed by Nouman Ilyas and Danyaal Jehangir (Gymkhana). Chalitha was placed at an aggregate score of 151 and Nouman and Danyaal were at 152. At 153 were Qasim Ali Khan (Pakistan) and Dean Naime (Egypt). Just one stroke behind at 154 were five competitors and they were Hussain Hamid, Omar Khalid, Umair Saleem, Sameer Iftikhar and Saad Habib Malik. In the Inter Provincial Team Match, the Punjab Golf Association team were in the forefront with two-round score of 451, followed by Federal Golf Association A at 467 and Sind Golf Association at 469.

In the Inter Association Team Match for senior amateurs, Punjab comprising Sardar Murad, Tariq Mehmood, Tariq Usman and Asif Mehdi (captain) won the title with a team score of 475. The runners-up team were Sindh Golf Association composed of Khurram Khan, Azhar Abbas, Khalid Jameel Siddiqui and MA Mannan. They had a team score of 507.

The women’s competition started yesterday, and the total entrants numbered 22 with two from Qatar namely Eve Sofia Garvey (handicap 4) and Nida Mir (handicap 1). Tremendously excited about their chances, the women contestants played the first round of 18 holes devotedly enough and demonstrated good rhythm in their golf swings. The leading contenders after first 18 holes were Humna Amjad and Parkha Ijaz bracketed as leaders with a gross score of 77. Aania Farooq Syed was at 79. Others carded modest scores. Suneya Osama had a round of 85 and Eve Sofiya Garvey (Qatar) also played 85. Amina Tiwana played 87 as did Ana James Gill. Dania Syed and Bushra Fatima scored 88. Those who lagged behind were Ghazala Yasmin, Zain un Nisa and Nida Mir (Qatar).