International golf returns to Pakistan in November

KARACHI: After a long wait of ten years, Pakistan’s top professionals will feature in an international golf tournament on home soil when the Defence Raya Golf Championship will be played in Lahore in November.

The inaugural championship, part of the Asian Development Tour, will be held at Defence Raya Golf and Country Club from November 2 to 5.With a prize basket of US$120,000, the Championship will be breaking new grounds as it will be the first event to be sanctioned by the Asian Development Tour (ADT) in Pakistan.

The last time Pakistan hosted an international golf event was back in 2007 when an Asian Tour tournament was played at the picturesque Karachi Golf Club.

The ADT event in Lahore will be held on a smaller scale but that shouldn’t dampen the mood of Pakistan’s golfing fraternity which has been awaiting the return of international action to the country for quite some time.

A field size of 120 golfers will tee up at the Defence Raya Golf Championship, which will be made up of 50 Asian Development Tour players, five Asian Development Tour invites, 50 local spots, five sponsored invitees and 10 amateurs.

“We are delighted to announce the Defence Raya Golf Championship will be making its debut on the ADT. The event also marks the Tour’s return to Pakistan after more than a decade as the Asian Tour last sanctioned the Pakistan Open in 2007,” said Cho Minn Thant, Chief Operating Officer of Asian Tour.

The inaugural event on the ADT will present players with more playing opportunities as they chase for their Asian Tour cards and world ranking points before the season reaches its climax at the end of the year.

“We are equally pleased to partner with the Asian Development Tour in this event and host some of the best players on the Asian Development Tour,” commented Lt Gen Muhammad Zahir ul Islam, President of the Pakistan Golf Federation (PGF).

The Defence Raya Golf Championship is the 16th event on the ADT schedule this year and like all other ADT events, offer Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) points.

The winner will receive six OWGR points while the top six players and ties will also earn points based on a sliding scale.The top-five finishers on the final Order of Merit will secure their Asian Tour cards for 2017.Pakistan’s top golf officials had been mulling over the idea of raising a whopping 50 million rupees in a bid to revive the country’s status as an Asian Tour destination.

Over the years a lack of ample finances and, perhaps more importantly, widespread security fears stopped PGF from holding an Asian Tour event in the country.The country staged back-to-back events in Karachi in 2006 and 2007 when the Pakistan Open became part of the prestigious Asian Tour. England’s Chris Rodgers won the inaugural event ahead of India’s Jeev Milkha Singh and Amandeep Johl. In 2007 Malaysia’s Airil Rizman claimed his maiden Asian Tour title with a two stroke triumph over Scott Hend of Australia.The PGF finally opted to host an ADT event which, it is believed, will be a stepping stone for the return of a full Asian Tour tournament to Pakistan in the near future.