Buoyant Vivek makes a Fortuner!

KARACHI: It’s a rare feat for a junior amateur to overshadow top professional stars in a major golfing event like the UMA 22nd Chief of Naval Staff Open Golf Championship.

But that’s precisely what 17-year-old local boy Vivek Anand did here at the picturesque Karachi Golf Club on Thursday when he aced the par-3 fourth hole on the Blue course to win a brand new Toyota Fortuner, easily one of the biggest prizes ever offered on the national golf circuit.

On a day when most professionals struggled to meet the challenge posed by a tough course, Vivek lit up the tournament with his shot off the tee that barely crossed the bunker on the Blue fourth and then raced towards the hole before falling in the cup to the delight of the young golfer.

“I couldn’t believe my eyes,” Vivek told ‘The News’. “It was a long, 213-yard hole today and I took out my 3-wood and hit it into the wind hoping to find the green. The ball crossed the bunker on the right and went into the hole. It was unbelievable,” he added.

Vivek who shot an 80 in the opening round wasn’t happy with his card but didn’t really care about it as he stood in front of the white Toyota Fotuner that he won after making the first hole-in-one of the Rs7 million championship. His family, who had made a surprise visit to KGC, were there to join the celebration.

By achieving that feat, he stole the limelight from defending champion Matloob Ahmed, who sank five birdies to take a two-shot lead in the opening round.

The competing players, both professionals and amateurs, were unpleasantly surprised to see the tees places way back making the course a bit too long.

While some of the big-hitters managed, others found the going really tough.And that was reflected in the scorecards on Thursday with only three professionals achieving sub-par scores.

At the top of the leader-board was Lahore’s Matloob, who had a birdie on the par-3 third hole on the Red course and a bogey on the sixth. He was in sublime form on the Blue course where he made four birdies to take the pole position on the leader-board.

Placed two shots off the pace was Muhammad Munir who carded two-under par 70. Lahore’s Daniyal Jahangir was third on 71. He was followed by the trio of Shabbir Iqbal, Muhammad Ashfaq and Azhar Hussain at 72.

In the amateurs’ category M. Sharif and Ashiq Hussain shared the lead after carding similar scores of 74. They were followed by the duo of Omar Shikoh Khan and Ahmed Baig at 75.

Following are the first round results:

Professionals

68: Matloob Ahmed

70: Muhammad Munir

71: Daniyal Jahangir

72: Shabbir Iqbal, Muhammad Ashfaq, Azhar Hussain

73: Ansar Mehmood, Waheed Baloch, Sunny Masih, Muhammad Siddiq, Naeem Khan, Ahmed Saeed

Amateurs

74: M. Sharif, Sajid Khan, Ashiq Hussain

75: Omar Shikoh Khan, Ahmed Baig

76: Mansoor Teli, M. Rehman

77: Khalid Mehmood, Lt Cdr Saeed

78: Zubair Hussain, Taimur Khan.