Daily Times

The 2nd WAPDA Amateur Golf Championship will tee off on Thursday (today) at the historic Lahore Gymkhana Golf Course. Addressing a press conference here Wednesday, Shaukat Javed, Convener Golf of Lahore Gymkhana, highlighted that eligible to participate in this grand event were registered amateurs with a handicap of 12 and below. Also present on the occasion were Col (r) Asif Mehdi (Advisor Sports WAPDA), Raja Saqlain Zahoor (DG Sports WAPDA), Shahid Javed Khan, (Tournament Director) and Khawaja Pervaiz Saeed (Director Media). “Being a championship of national standing, competing amateurs are players who can be classified as accomplished and adept golfers while a majority of the competitors belong to ranks of upcoming and emerging players of merit category,” Shaukat added. He said the upcoming ones were filled with the urge to match wits with the recognised ones and through admirable and impeccable application of golfing skills get graded as majestic and exalted ones. “Naturally, the reason for holding events of this size and magnitude is to afford opportunities to the men of talent and aspiration,” he added.

Asif Mehdi highlighted that during the course of the championship it will be enchanting to follow the performances of skillful players and watch how they produce quality scores through masterly application of champion like abilities and unmatched consistency. “Besides top amateurs, eligible to participate are veterans (age above 70 years), senior amateur golf players (age above 55 years) and women. He said that veterans would compete over 9 holes whereas seniors and women will compete over 36 holes. As for amateurs, they will compete over 54 holes.” Prizes at stake are attractive and besides trophies the winners will get useful golf equipment related gifts. In numerical terms, the competing hopefuls add up to a total of 170.

Khawaja Pervaiz stated that names of the more prominent participants were Ghazanfar Mehmood (WAPDA), Raja Muhammed Israr (Garden City), Ashiq Hussain (Multan), Ameer Khawaja (Sialkot), Rizwan Adam (Jehlum),Taimoor Khan, Inayatullah Yousafzai, Shehryar Ghaffar (Peshawar), Wazir Ali, Sardar Murad Khan, M.Saqib, Fakhar Imam, Murad A.Khan, Ahsan Khawaja, Zunair Aleem Khan and Mohsen Zafar.