Daily Times

LAHORE: Fakhar Imam of Defence Raya Golf and Country Club played a spectacular round in the four rounds National Amateur Golf Championship in progress at the par 72 Defence Raya Golf Course here on Thursday and emerged on the top of the event leader board. Besides Fakhar, there are 83 other golfers competing in the amateur gross section and many of them are accomplished aspirants who seek victory and a chance to pick up the national champion title for 2016. Fakhar turned out to be the best one of the first round and also the only one with an under par round while quite a few others managed to demonstrate the required application of golfing skills. And though they lagged behind the leader, they were in position to improve their chances and standing by more excellence over the remaining three rounds. The contenders were Taimur Khan of Abbotabad, M Rehman (Royal Palm), Faisal Sayid (Royal Palm), Ghazanfar Mehmood (Rawalpindi), M Rasel (Bangladesh), Mohsen Zafar (Gymkhana) and Waseem Rana (DHA Karachi).

Fakhar started the day with a regulation par on the first hole and followed it up with a birdie on the following hole and thereafter the showing was virtually blemish free except the bogies on holes 5 and 15. All through the first round he consistently produced copybook shots and if we review his pattern of play he ended the first nine holes in 35, fetching six pars and two birdies on two holes with a bogie on the 5th hole. On the back nine the excellence was duplicated, every shot a treat to watch and the regulation pars came in regular succession, a total of six with a birdie on the closing 18th hole managed through gutsy execution of the tee shot, the fairway wood shot and then the chip with a soft touch “I am so pleased with my game of the first day and am determined to make a match of it over the next three days,” Fakhar said.

Another golfer who played extremely well was young Taimur Khan of Abbotabad Golf Club. His hitting was superb and accuracy of shot making from the fairways just perfect. He closed the first round with a score of par 72 and was placed one stroke behind the leader. Others in contention in the race for national honours were M Rehman with a score of 73, followed by Faisal Sayid 74, Ghazanfar Mehmood 74, Waseem Rana 75, M Rasel 75 and Mohsen Zafar 75. A few more in contention were M Farhad (Bangladesh) 76, Amer Chaudhary (Defence Raya) 76, Hussain Hamid (Royal Palm) 76 and Sardar Murad (Defence Raya) 76.

In the international team match, the situation looked extremely tight. Pakistan A team comprising Ghazanfar Mehmood and Ahmed Baig were placed at an aggregate score of 151 and at the same score were the Bangladesh team comprising M Rasel and M Farhad. Other teams from Iran and Afghanistan played poorly and lagged behind. The competition in the inter association team match was really competitive. The Punjab A team comprising Ahmed Hussain, Ashiq Hussain, Ghazanfar Mehmood and Muhammed Rehman aggregated a team score of 224 and were front runners. Following them were the Sind A team comprising Waseem Rana, Ansar Mehmood, Ahmed Ali Shah and Zohaib Asif at a score of 231.