Daily Times

KARACHI: At the end of first day in the four-day UMA-CNS Open Golf Championship at the admirable and elegant Karachi Golf Club Golf Course here Thursday, Ahmad Baig of Pakistan, a twenty years old amateur champion, fired a flawless five -under-par 67 to emerge as the leader and amazed and stunned many top overseas professionals as well as top ranked professionals of Pakistan. This youngster, who has many achievements to his credit over the past twelve months, became the flag bearer for the country as he showed his mettle and ability in this international event backed by the Asia Tour, which prides itself in luring 71 international top players from USA, Venezuela, Austria, Sweden, England, Spain, South Africa, Thailand, Philippines, China, Singapore, Bangladesh and India.

No major golf tour has visited Pakistan since 2007. The last scheduled tournament, in 2008, was cancelled after a wave of insurgent attacks. The 2009 attack on Sri Lanka’s cricket team’s bus in Lahore, in which eight people were killed, caused all sporting visits to be suspended. But successful military operations in the country’s northwest near the Afghan border and crackdowns in urban centres, including the port city of Karachi, have improved the situation. The country has twice hosted the Pakistan Super League cricket finals featuring international stars plus successful limited-over series against Zimbabwe, a World XI and Sri Lanka in the past 18 months. They cleared the way for more sports with squash, tennis and now golf having returned.

During the first round yesterday, Ahmad showed adequate calmness and control and was definitely not overawed by the fact that he was up against many top golfers of Asia and other continents. What impressed the experts was his superb and accurate hitting off the tees and skillful and deft approach shots from the fairways. Through this display of excellence he won compliments from Asad IA Khan of the Pakistan Golf Federation and Taimur Hassan, Vice President of the Asia Pacific Golf Confederation. For Ahmad, this represented a grand moment and a dream like round of quality golf on an occasion that brings international golf to Pakistan.

From amongst the overseas participants, Namchok Tantipokhakul of Thailand shared the top position with Ahmad, as he also ended the first round of 18 holes with a score of five under par 67 and these two were bunched together at the top of the leaderboard. Undoubtedly Namchok is a branded player of the Asian Tour and his mastery in application of golfing skills is evident from the way he handles his golf sticks and especially his putter.

More champions who performed exceedingly well are Muhammad Shabbir Iqbal of Pakistan, Honey Baisoya of India, Pawin Ingkhaprait of Thailand, and James Ryan Lam of Philippines. These four fearsome and adept players were bracketed at a remarkable score of 68, four under par. The heartening news for Pakistan was that Shabbir looked in great trim and apparent was his determination to outshine his fellow competitors from other continents. And minus one lapse on the ninth hole where he lost a stroke, he was relentless in his pursuit of an outstanding show in this championship. The players from overseas who are searching for a victory in Pakistan and lucrative prize money seem delighted that they accepted the invitation to come to Pakistan and play at the exquisite Karachi Golf Club Golf Course.

Others players who came up with good scores were Muhammad Munir 69, Sunny Masih 69, Shahid Javed Khan 69, all from Pakistan. Another one to score a 69 was Suradit Yong from Thailand. At a score of 70, two under par, were Koh Deng Shan (Singapore), Matthew Killen (England), Dilshad Ali (Pakistan) and Imdad Hussain (Pakistan).

While cricket remains the undisputed number one sport in Pakistan, golf is popular with the country’s powerful army, with military areas where the top brass reside frequently home to some of Pakistan’s best courses. Pakistan’s Navy are hosting this week’s Asian Tour event, which has a $300,000 prize fund. Pakistan hosted its first Asian Tour event in 1989, which was won by Filipino Frankie Minoza. The country’s only Asian Tour winner remains Taimur Hussain who triumphed at an event in Myanmar in 1998.

Published in Daily Times, October 12^th 2018.