The 58th National Amateur Golf Championship commenced at the Garrison Golf Course here Thursday, producing refreshing and stimulating competitive golf that is expected to bring to the forefront the new amateur golf champion of Pakistan at the conclusion of four rounds (72 holes). After the completion of the first round yesterday, Abdul Zahoor of Multan played an amazing first round of gross 69, three under par, to set the pace in this event. In the face of intense challenge offered by 62 other acclaimed and reputable aspirants, this highly skilled and experienced golfer was right on target from the word go and his opening regulation par on the first hole was an illustration of his intention to dominate his adversaries. In the course of the opening round, Zahoor went through a faultless eighteen holes and supported by birdies on three holes he managed to create a spectacle of his motives and design to appear as the mighty one.
The leader of the first round, Zahoor, may be satisfied with his own effort but from the competitive angle his nearest challengers are two more good players. Zulfiqar Ali, a club mate from Multan, and Zubair Hussain of Pakistan Air Force. For Zulfiqar the first round score was gross 71 and Zubair carded a round of gross 72. Some more contenders striving for top positions were Mohsin Zafar (Gymkhana) 73, M Ashfaq (Abbotabad) 74, Raza Ali (MGC) 74 and Robin Bagh (Gymkhana) also at 74. Others at fairly decent scores were Raja Israr (GCG) 75 and this position he shared with five others. Their names were Pervaiz Malik (PAF), Ghazanfar Mehmood (GCG), Zubair Ahmed (WWG), Ayaz Saleem (Garrison) and Zunair Aleem Khan (Defence Raya).