KARACHI: Lahore’s Aadil Jehangir took a three-shot lead in the Chevron-DHA Karachi Cup All Pakistan Open Golf Championship here at the Defence Authority Country and Golf Club on Saturday.
With the mercury going up, the playing conditions became tough and it showed on the scorecards of even the top professionals featuring in the three-day championship.
Overnight leaders Moazzam Sidique and Waheed Baloch faltered in the penultimate round of the Rs1.8 million championship allowing Aadil Jehangir to catapult himself to the top of the leader-board with a second round score of two-under par 70. Having carded 69 on the opening day, Aadil’s aggregate is 139 (-5) which gives him a sizeable three-shot lead over second-placed Moazzam. DHA’s Moazzam followed his opening day’s score of 68 with 74 and now faces an uphill task on the final day of the championship on Sunday (today). He is tied for the second place with M. Khalid, M. Saqlain and M. Tariq. The quartet has identical aggregates of 142.
Trailing them by one shot is the duo of Waheed Baloch and M Ashfaque at 143. The seasoned Waheed had a particularly bad day on the lush green DACGC course as he followed his opening day’s 68 with 75 that included a double bogey on the par-3 third hole. Just one shot behind them was Islamabad’s Hamza Amin, who braved some poor chipping to card 73 and remain in the hunt for a top-three place in the championship sponsored by Chevron Lubricants Pakistan Limited. Son of Pakistan’s legendary golfer, Hamza said on Saturday that he was confident of a strong finish in the championship. “I like this course and hopefully will play my best round tomorrow,” he said.
Hamza is followed on the leader-board by DHA’s Imran Ali Khan and KGC’s Amjad Yousuf (145).
Meanwhile, Javed Inayat won the senior professionals title while Asghar Ali was the runner-up. He was followed by Saleem Inayat, Ghani Khan and M Ilyas. Nadeem Almas won the junior professionals event.
In the seniors’ category, DACGC captain Col Zahid Iqbal reigned supreme.
The final round of the championship will be played today followed by the prize distribution ceremony at 5.30 pm.