LAHORE: The 7th JA Zaman Memorial Open Golf Championship came to a rousing conclusion after four rounds of golfing excellence from top forty professional golf champions of the country here Sunday. The championship turned out to be advantageous and auspicious for Matloob Ahmed of Lahore Garrison Golf Club as he flourished, prospered and ultimately triumphed as the four rounds ended at the historic Lahore Gymkhana Club Golf Course. And the champion he vanquished was none else but remarkable and incredibly masterly one M Shabbir Iqbal, the defending champion and number one ranked golf professional of the country. At the start of the final round yesterday, these two rivals were bunched together at a score of gross 209, seven under par. And as the battle of champions gathered momentum, the proceedings oozed with stressful moments as each stakeholder played to the best of his ability, avoiding the slightest of errors and applying experience and skillful talent to the maximum. While honours remained even on the front nine, the back nine brought some lucky breaks for Matloob as Shabbir lost strokes on two holes and tilt turned Matloob’s way. In the closing holes, Matloob was at his playing best and looked formidable as compared to his combatant of decades. With a final 18 holes score of gross 68 and a four rounds aggregate score of 277, eleven under par, he achieved victory over Shabbir by a margin of three strokes. The third position went to Muhammad Munir of Rawalpindi. His score for the four rounds was 287. Shahid Javed Khan of WAPDA ended up fourth with a four rounds aggregate of 288 followed by Talib Hussain (Islamabad) 289 and Hamza Amin (Islamabad) 289 and Waheed Baloch (Karachi) 289.
Top position in amateur section was achieved by Ghazanfar Mehmood of Green City Golf Club. His winning gross score was 222. The second position went to Qasim Ali Khan of Gymkhana, his score being 233. Salman Jehangir came third with a score of 237. The net section winner was the steady and competitive Shahid A Khan. The second net winner was Jaffar Masih and third net was won by Danish Javed.
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