Ralfe emerges winner of sudden death playoff in National Amateur Golf

ISLAMABAD: Ralfe E Aslam Raja edged out Shahzeb Jahan on the third hole of the play-off (sudden death) to win the main Trophy (gross) in the Smart City 63rd National Amateur Golf Championship here at the Margalla Greens Sunday.

In what turned out to be an exciting finale, both Ralfe and Shahzeb were tied at two over in a four-day competition on the 71-stroke par course.

To determine the winner, a sudden death (play-off) hole was contested which saw both golfers carding par on the first two holes. On third, Ralfe carded birdie while Shahzeb had to content with par to fold the unexpected delay in determining the winner.

Ralfe who had a clear advantage going into the last day, squandered his lead by playing three over 74 with Shahzeb having a perfect day with the score of par 71. Hussain Hamid (289) finished third in gross with Sri Lankan Chalitha Pushpika who earlier helped his team win the Jayawardne Trophy had to content with fourth position with the same aggregate score.

Later, talking to ‘The News’ Pushpika said that after a long time, Sri Lanka had won the Trophy. “We took full advantage of rain on the opening day as we are accustomed to playing under cloudy and rainy conditions. Our first-day score helped us not only to win the Trophy but to set a good tempo for later rounds,” he said. Raja Israr won the amateur net category with a score of nine under 275 over four days. The four-stroke handicap golfer had a last round of three under 68 net. Abdullah Ansar Raja with a net score of six under 278 over 72 holes finished as net runner up.

Parkha Ijaz with a score of 215 over three days of golf won the ladies’ gross title with Hamna Amjad following him on the score of six over 219 for three days. Daniah Syed finished third with seven over 220 over 54 holes of competition. Ladies’ net title was annexed by Daniah Syed. For a change, the organizer set an encouraging tradition by inviting Pakistan’s top professional golfer Shabbir Iqbal as a chief guest.