KARACHI: As the Asian Tour is returning to the country after a gap of 11 years with UMA-CNS Open Golf Championship holding a purse of $300,000, the top golfer of Pakistan, Shabbir Iqbal thinks that it won’t benefit local players. In the 2006 edition of the event Iqbal finished at the fourth spot, while England’s Chris Rodgers won the Championship. Iqbal was then given exemption in the Asian Tour’s international events and finished at the sixth spot out of 600 golfers held in Malaysia. This edition, worth $300,000 is being sponsored by United Marine Agency (UMA) that will be held at Karachi Golf Club (KGC), where more than 90 Asian Tour and European Tour winners will be taking part. “The top golfers of the world won’t be coming to Pakistan in this low prize money competition. The top 20 golfers only participate in tournaments that offer minimum $1 million in prize money,” Iqbal said. “Although it is a good chance for the top golfers of the country to win some part of the prize money and also a chance to get exemptions in the Asian Tour’s international events. We have seen the prize money of the previous Asian Tour events almost the same as this year. The low prize money also decreases the level of competition,” he further explained. He added that to provide real support to the upcoming golfers, companies like UMA and others should sponsor the players rather than tournaments. “Right now the biggest hurdle in players’ progress is finances. Players are not able to take part in national and international events and are unable to train throughout the year. But still, if a tournament of this level, where international players come in to participate, is held at least biannually, then the quality of the players could increase,” he said. The four-day tournament is set to begin from October 11 and will be featuring all Pakistani golfers and 90 plus international golfers. “The players have to compete in international tournaments too but for that they need a minimum of $5000 to even play qualification rounds and they don’t such finances,” said the caddie-turned-golfer. Published in Daily Times, September 18th 2018.