Royal Palm Stableford Golf crown for Ali

LAHORE: Ali Naeem won the Royal Palm Stableford Golf competition with noticeable straight and impossible drives here at Royal Palm Golf Course on Friday.The aspirants for golfing honors looked totally energized as they turned up to participate in the Royal Palm Quaid-i-Azam Golf Competition at the scenic, 18 holes, par 72, Royal Palm Golf course.

This event was held on the stableford scoring format which encourages aggressive play and as the 18 holes competition progressed, noticeable were straight and powerful drives by the double digit handicappers like Ali Naeem, Mansoor Zaigham, Dr Mohsin, and even the evergreen Lt Gen (r) M Tariq who is always out to teach the upcoming ones a lesson or two in how to strategise in golf competitions so that victory becomes possible.

From the angle of consistency it was Ali Naeem who managed to back up his drives with crisp and accurate approach shots to the greens and thereby take advantage of his handicap strokes to compile an applaud worthy aggregate score of 43 points through two birdies, nine regulation pars and six bogies.

The only hole that he double bogeyed was the par four, 8th hole but because of his steady effort on the other 17 holes, this lapse did not hamper his victory standing in the keenly contested competition.

While Ali Naeem was the superb one of the day, there were others who played with devotion and determination to win positions other than the first. Somehow that included the experienced Lt Gen (r) M. Tariq too.

Undoubtedly Gen Tariq remained on course to victory to the very last, but missed the top slot by two points and succeeded in securing the runners up position in the race for honors in handicap category zero to fifteen.

Hamid Sharif, another skilled golfer emerged third, his stableford score being 37.Performers in the handicap category 16 to 18 were Mansoor Zaigham, first position holder with 39 points to his credit.

Dr Mohsin also applied his golfing skills well enough to end up second. His score was 37. Third slot winner in handicap category 16 to 18 was Asim Bajwa with a score of 31 points.A few more winners were Shoaib Shams and Imran Mairaj.

Shoaib Shams hit the longest drive to pick up the award in this bracket and Imran Mairaj hit the ball accurately enough to win the nearest to the pin prize. Another name that stood out was that of a relatively new golfer who came up with the worst score.

And this participant was Ahmad Asad who got a prize for playing, what in golfing terms is, “Maximum Golf”. Hopefully with more effort and experience we will see his name amongst the best performers list in times to come.At the conclusion of the ompetition, Lt Gen (r) M. Tariq, Captain of Royal Palm Golf Club, awarded prizes to the winners.