Daily Times

LAHORE: In the Inter Club Golf Teams Tournament for predominance, the 20-member Royal Palm team on Tuesday triumphed over the proficient Lahore Gymkhana and Defence Raya teams through coherence, exceptional application of skills and a tactical master plan devised by their captain Shahid Abbas that facilitated their well-deserved befitting achievement .The final day yesterday was a singles match play competition contested at the beautiful Defence Raya Golf Course and all credit to the Royal Palm golfers for adapting consummately and professionally to the arduous and demanding conditions rampant at the par 72 course. At the start of the final day, it was Lahore Gymkhana in the lead and were placed at 48 points, Royal Palm at 42 points and Defence Raya at 30 points after the completion of first two rounds competition.

The final 18 holes competition was crucial and at stake in the singles match play contest was a total of 60 points which meant that the ultimate triumphant one could have been either of the three teams. Earlier the championship commenced after a lot of handshakes and though many smiles were exchanged, the battle oriented atmosphere was anticipation and strain loaded. Captains of the three teams took time to strategise and brief their mates. The game progressed with accurate hitting and crisp shot making and all through the 18 holes, noticeable was the intensity as each participant attempted to outwit his adversary through superb application of golfing skills. As the match reached an exciting conclusion, Royal Palm compiled 25 points, Gymkhana fetched 15.5 points and Defence Raya managed 19.5 points.

In this way the Royal Palm commanded their way to supremacy with a total compilation of 67 points followed by Gymkhana 63.5 points and Defence Raya 49.5 points. If the contest is taken round by round, Royal Palm had topped in the first round while Gymkhana moved ahead after the second round. And in the final outing, Royal Plam moved ahead principally rightfully claiming the prized trophy through an overall winning aggregate with Gymkhana as runners-up.

In this effort the champions who performed admirably for Royal Palm were Hussain Hamid, Azfar Hassan, Faisal Malik, Asim Tiwana, M Abid, Mohsen Zafar, Imran Chaudhary, Abdullah Sharif, Asim Zafar, Hassan Atta, Usman Cheema, Hassan Naseem, Dr Nadeem Mukhtar, Rana Imran and their captain Shahid Abbas. For Gymkhana, those who performed impressively were Ahsan Khawaja, Taimur Shabbir, Tanvir Najm and Omer Farooq. The outstanding ones for Defence Raya were Mohammed Ibrahim, Abdullah Khan and Hassan Arshed.