KARACHI: Pakistan’s Omar Khalid Hussain made an impressive start to his title campaign in the 38th Qatar Open Golf Championship at the Doha Golf Club on Thursday after carding three-over-par 75 in extremely windy conditions. Omar, 19, made two birdies and five bogeys and is just one shot behind the trio of Netherlands’ Olivier van Lelyveld, England’s Calum Fitzgerald and Australia’s Andrew Ikstrums.
The three are at the top of the leaderboard at two-over-par 74.Omar is the only Pakistani player featuring in a field of 94 players from all over the world. The winner of the Qatar Open earns the right to feature in the prestigious Qatar Masters, a European Tour event.
This is the second time Omar is taking part in the Qatar Open. He claimed sixth position in the 2023 edition. Omar started the opening round from the back nine and struggled on the lightning fast greens.
He was three-over 39 at the turn with bogeys on holes 11, 13 and 18. He made birdies on holes 2 and 5 followed by bogeys on 3 and 6 to finish at 75.”I hit 15 greens today but putting was really difficult because of very hard and fast greens,” he said.