At the end of the second round of the four rounds 58th National Amateur Golf Championship, in progress at the par 72, Garrison Golf Course here Friday, Zulfiqar Ali, a player of national standing, emerged as the leading contender by displaying champion like capabilities in the course of the second eighteen holes. The flow of his shots was remarkable and truly majestic was his powerful drives on the par 4’s and par 5’s. Added to that, noticeable was his putting command on the greens. He was fluent in putting and not once did he have a three putt over the eighteen holes. Overnight he was at second position, and by virtue of his steady game on second day, he was at top of the leader board with two round scores of 71 and 74 and an aggregate of 145, one over par. From the competitive angle the battle lines are clearly drawn and with two rounds to go, Zulfiqar will be up against foes and rivals like Zohaib Asif, Mohsin Zafar and Abdul Zahoor. Score wise these three players were merely single stroke behind the leader at a two rounds aggregate score of 146.
Out of the other established combatants, Ghazanfar Mehmood too impressed with his massive tee shots .With a par round of 72 yesterday, he was placed at an aggregate score of 147, two strokes behind the leader. Young Taimur Khan of Peshawar was at a score of 148 and rooting for a more desirable position at the top. As for the other contenders, M Sharif was placed at a score of 149 and he was bracketed at this score with Ashiq Hussain and Ayaz Saleem. The inter association team match concluded after two days. Federal A team edged to victory by hardly any margin. Federal A Team had a score of 455 and interestingly Punjab A team also ended at the same score but as per rules the scores of the fourth player were considered to determine the winner.