Daily Times

LAHORE: At the end of the first round of the three rounds 10th Royal Palm Golf Team Trophy and Challenge Shield at the pleasant looking par 72 Royal Palm Club Golf Course here Friday, Lahore Garrison Club team comprising M Saqib, Ahmed Baig and Nadeem Aslam demonstrated their aggressive intent by managing to get a hold on the top position with an impressive team score of 222. This score was made possible with some authoritative play by Saqib (gross 71), some ardent play by Ahmed (gross 73) and a modest contribution of 78 by Nadeem. Their fourth team mate, Ayaz Saleem, was too error prone and his score was not considered because as per tournament rules, the best three scores out of four can come into reckoning.

Another team that performed exceedingly well and looked determined to make a mark were Gymkhana Greens who played second fiddle to their seniors – Gymkhana Blues – but came up with superb scores and looked far superior to their seniors in playing ability. And while the seniors came up with a rather modest effort, the younger ones of Gymkhana Greens showed their worth with applaudable cards. Salman Jehangir had a round of gross 72, Waleed Zubair carded a score of gross 75 and Ahsan Khawaja came up with a steady round of gross 76. The fourth team member, Mohsen Zafar, had a score of gross 79. And with a team score of gross 223, Gymkhana Greens were just one stroke behind the leading Garrison team.

The team placed third were the Garden City Islamabad comprising Ghazanfar Mehmood (68), Amir Farooq (79), Idress Haider Tinkoo (82) and Haider Ateeq (82). The team score of Garden City was 229. At fourth position were Royal Palm Seniors and their team members with scores were M Rehman (74), Omer Salamat (77), Hussain Hamid (80) and Faisal Sayid (92). Their team score was 231. As for the other teams, they were placed far behind and included Gymkhana Blues at a team aggregate score 236, Islamabad PAF at 240, Karachi at 244, DHA Raya at 245 and Rawalpindi at 250.

Along with the team event was the competition for individual gross and in this section Ghazanfar Mehmood of Garden City Golf Club Islamabad, a leading amateur golf player of Pakistan, showed his class and played inspired golf for a round of four under par gross 68. By virtue of this excellence he was the leader in gross section and in particular his regulation pars on 14 holes and four birdies reflected total brilliance. Other competitors in line for gross honors were Salman Jahangir of Gymkhana with a score of par 72, M Rehman of Royal Palm with a score of gross 74, Waleed Zubair (Gymkhana) with a score of gross 75 and Ahsan Khawaja (Gymkhana) with a score of gross 76. In the race for honours in the Challenge Shield event, the talented one in the forefront was Abbas Chaudhry of Royal Palm Golf Club. Regarded as a hard working golfer Abbas managed to demonstrate his skills and golfing ability with an impressive round of net 68. Just one stroke behind him were four golfers of substance. These four were Waleed Zubair, Ahsan Khawaja, M Saqib and Salman Jahangir and they were all placed at a net score of 69. Zubair Hussain of Islamabad was at net 71.