KARACHI: Pakistan’s fast-rising golfer Ahmed Baig won the Qatar Open Amateur Golf Championship played in Doha Gulf Club in Doha, Qatar on Saturday. 19-year-old Ahmed, who earlier won Pakistan’s edition of Faldo Challenge this month, emerged as the winner in the three-day championship, he played over 54 holes with a score of under 3. The young golfer from Lahore couldn’t do well on day one where he played one-over-par after bogies in four holes which overshadowed his birdies on three holes. On the second day of the championship, Ahmed made a big move when he shot two-under-par (70) to bring himself back in contention for the title with a birdy on holes 5th, 7th, 9th, 14th and 16th.
Ahmed looked comfortable on the third day as well and remained at-par on first 9 holes. However, a double bogey at 13th hole gave him a scare but he managed to finish as the leader with birdies on number 14th, 16th and 18th to keep his score to two-under. With this win, Ahmed, the tournament champion, along with the winner in the professional category and two best Qatari finishers gets a berth at the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters 2018, a European Tour event, to be held from February 22 to 25 at the same venue. He will also represent Pakistan at the 11th Faldo Series Asia Grand Final to be held at the Laguna Lang Co Golf Club in Danang, Vietnam, in March this year.
Published in Daily Times, January 28th 2018.