Daily Times

LAHORE: The 55th National Amateur Golf Championship of Pakistan will tee off at the top golf course of Asia, the Defence Raya Golf and Country Club Golf Course, here on Thursday (tomorrow). Skilled golfers seeking the amateur national golf title from all over Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Iran have converged to the exceedingly well laid out Defence Raya Golf Course. “The participation of two teams from Afghanistan and one each from Iran and Bangladesh will add colour and festivity in the event besides making it competitive and thrilling,” said a member of the organising committee on Tuesday.

The players are currently in a practice mode to increase their awareness of the golf course contours, the hazards like out of bounds, bunkers, water ponds and the fast pace of the greens. Normally before the commencement of a championship of this level, the star players like to undergo this routine of evaluating the golf course essential perimeters and features so that they can strategise their game plan with a view to eliminating any possible adverse effect of the hidden challenges of the golf course.

In accordance with the eligibility criteria for this national golf championship, only players with a handicap of seven and below can participate and one can foresee quality golf on all four days of the grand event from April 21 to 24. Of course the more established contenders are competitors who are in national reckoning and the Pakistanis who fall in this category are Ghazanfar Mehmood (Rawalpindi), Taimoor Khan (Peshawar), Mohammad Waseem Rana (DHA Karachi), Zohaib Asif (DHA Karachi), Muhammad Rehman (Royal Palm), Sajid Khan (Arabian Sea Karachi), Khalid Mehmood (Rawalpindi), Nadeem Asalm (Lahore Garrison), Robin Bagh (Mianwali) and Tariq Mehmood (Margalla Greens).

While these players represent the nationally ranked category of players, there are quite a few classy ones loaded with talent and golfing skills and they are the ones with a lot of fire in their belly and through gutsy performance in this national championship hope to make a name for themselves. The prominent ones who fall in this grade are Wazir Ali, Mohsen Zafar, Salman Jehangir, Taimur Shabbir, Fakhar Imam and Waleed Zubair.

As for the foreign teams participating in the National Golf Championship of Pakistan, the Afghanistan squad is represented by Mehboob Shah Qazizada (captain) and Abdul Mahboob Serwari (delegate). The Afghanistan A team comprises Noor Ahmed Fazel and Abdel Waheed Sarwari and the Afghanistan B team has Mohammad Nadir Mehfooz and Shamsuddin.

The Iran team is represented by Farhad Baharvand (captain), Reza Pour Hosseni and Hossein Shahivandi as playing members. Bangladesh team is Mohammad Obaidul Haque (captain), Mohammed Farhad and Mohammed Rasel as players. Pakistan A team comprises of Ghazanfar Mehmood and Ahmed Baig while Pakistan B team is Ashiq Hussain and Nadeem Aslam.

During this four days championship, the events at stake are men’s national champions title, women’s national champion title, international team match title and inter association team match tile.

In the race for the inter association team title, the contenders are the Sindh A and B teams captained by Asad IA Khan. Other provincial teams are Punjab A and Punjab B, the Federal team from Islamabad captained by Wing Cmdr (r) IN Khokhar and there is the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa team. Amongst women, the prominent contenders are Shahzadi Gulfam of Punjab Police, Maryama Khan of Lahore Gymkhana, Tahira Nazir from Rawalpindi and Ghazala Yasmin who is considered the undisputed champion of women’s golf in Pakistan.

The tournament committee for this championship is headed by Maj Gen (r)Tariq Saleem along with Brig (r) A Nayyar, Brig (r) Shahid Wahab Rao and Maj Khalid Mehmood of Defence Raya Club. A formal ceremony will be held on Wednesday (today) at the Defence Raya Golf Course at 3:30pm when the foreign and Pakistan teams will attend the flag hoisting ceremony.