Daily Times

The month of February is a particularly cheerful time for the golfing fraternity of Pakistan as in this month Lahore Gymkhana Golf Club hosts the city’s largest ranking golf tournament, the annual JA Zaman Memorial Open Golf Championship. Addressing a press conference in this connection, Shaukat Javed, convener golf of Lahore Gymkhana, said what made this tournament truly exceptional was that it had no corporate sponsor. “This open golf championship is entirely a family effort given total support by the JA Zaman family who ensures that this championship is held in a way that JA Zaman, an icon of excellence, would have liked,” he added.

Also present on the occasion were Hamid Zaman, head of JA Zaman family, Omer Zia, captain golf, and Khawaja Pervaiz Saeed, director media. Shaukat added that for the tournament’s 6th edition, the prize money on offer was a mouth-watering Rs.3 million. “In addition, golfers will also have a chance to win a luxury car with a hole-in-one.”

Hamid stated that it was necessary to highlight and share that during his lifetime JA Zaman was regarded as a supporter of sports activity and was associated with golf at Lahore Gymkhana for over 50 years. “He was known as an avid philanthropist, a successful entrepreneur, a much loved family man, a man endued with nobility and a guide to all he came across either as fellow members or golfers. This icon oozed with passion about fulfilling the needs of the less privileged ones. His children are ably carrying on this aspect of his legacy as well as just last year the charitable Zaman Foundation allocated a special fund for the health and education of the caddies and ball boys.”

Omer Zia highlighted that the foremost positive aspect of the JA Zaman Open Golf Championship was that the top golf professionals of the country were eligible to participate. There is also an event for the junior professionals. Age eligibility for Junior Professionals is 21 years and the prize money is Rs.225000. As for senior professionals, the age criteria is 50 years and above. Prize money allocated for them is Rs.350,000.

Pervaiz Saeed said that prominent professionals in order of their national ranking are Shabbir Iqbal (Islamabad), Matloob Ahmad (Islamabad), Muhammad Munir (Islamabad), Shahid Javed Khan (Gymkhana), Waheed Baloch (Karachi), Shafiq Masih (Gymkhana), Hamza Amin (Islamabad), Muhammad Ashfaq (Airmen Golf Club, Karachi), Talib Hussain (Islamabad) and Muhammad Asif (Raya).

Published in Daily Times, February 21^st 2019.