Daily Times

LAHORE: For over 50 years, women’s golf in Pakistan had remained rather low key at the national level. As a result, the women’s match was treated simply as an ‘add on’ to the main event. However, women had, for long, cherished a dream of holding an exclusive ‘women’s only’ golf championship at the national level. Their dream turned into reality in 2015 when Dr Asma Afzal Shami, ably assisted by Mrs Yasmin Mubarik and Mrs Tahira Raza, succeeded in convincing Gen Zaheer ul Islam, the then President of the Pakistan Golf Federation (PGF), to sanction the ‘1st PGF Women’s Amateur Golf Championship.’ This first ever, women’s only, golf tournament was held at the Lahore Gymkhana in March 2016 with Dr Shami as its tournament director. The women golfers of Pakistan, as a whole, rose to the occasion to ensure its phenomenal success, with as many as 68 of them coming from different parts of the country to participate in this truly historic event. Encouraged by its success, the PGF decided to make this an annual event, to be rotated between Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad. Consequently, the 2nd championship was held in March 2017 at Karsaz Karachi and was equally successful.

At this stage Lt Gen Hilal assumed the presidentship of the PGF and expressed his unstinting support for developing women’s golf in Pakistan. He began by raising the level of the 3rd Championship, held at the Islamabad Golf Club in March 2018 under Ms Zeenat Ayesha, to that of an international tournament, with foreign teams from Bangladesh and Thailand competing in this memorable event. The 4th Championship is due to be held in Lahore Gymkhana in March 2019.

Women’s golf received another major boost when the Punjab Golf Association, decided to institute a similar annual event at the provincial level. Thus, the ‘1st PGA Women’s Amateur Golf Championship’ was held at the LGG&CC in December 2017. Its success encouraged the Sindh and Federal Golf Associations to hold similar tournaments at Karachi in August and October 2018 respectively. Incidentally, the ‘2nd PGA Women’s Golf Championship’ is starting at Defence Raya on Friday (today). With four, exclusive, major golf tournaments in a calendar year, Women’s golf has certainly arrived, and now forms a major part of the national golf scene. This unprecedented increase in women’s golf tournaments has definitely improved the standard of women’s golf in Pakistan.

Published in Daily Times, December 7^th 2018.