Multan’s Zahoor takes lead in National Amateurs

KARACHI: Multan’s Abdul Zahoor fired a stunning round of three-under par 69 to take the lead on the opening day of 58th National Amateur Golf Championship of Pakistan at Lahore’s Garrison Golf and Country Club on Thursday.

In the face of intense challenge offered by 62 other acclaimed and reputable aspirants, this highly skilled and experienced golfer was right on target from the word go. Zahoor played an unblemished round which was punctuated with three birdies. His nearest challengers are two more good players -- Zulfiqar Ali, a club mate from Multan and Zubair Hussain of PAF. For Zulfiqar the first round score was 71 and Zubair carded a round of 72.

Some more contenders striving for top positions are Mohsin Zafar (Gymkhana) 73, M. Ashfaq (Abbotabad) 74, Raza Ali (MGC) 74 and Robin Bagh (Gymkhana) also at 74. Others at fairly decent scores are Raja Israr (GCG) 75 and this position he shares with five others -- Pervaiz Malik(PAF), Ghazanfar Mehmood (GCG), Zubair Ahmed (WWG), Ayaz Saleem (Garrison)and Zunair Aleem Khan (Defence Raya). All these ten competitors seeking national honors have a task ahead of them and need to excel and produce scores of excellence on the remaining three days.

In the Inter Provincial Team Match, the Punjab ‘B’ team came out as the notable one as their players Raza Ali, Rafay Raja, Damil Ataullah and Salman Jehangir aggregated a team score of 226 giving them a lead of five strokes over their seniors, the Punjab ‘A’ Team. For Punjab ‘A’, the team members Ashiq Hussain, M.Saqib and Robin Bagh aggregated a score of 231. At third position are bracketed the Federal ‘A’ Team and Sindh ‘A’ Team. Aggregate score for these two teams is 232. They are followed by Sindh B Team which is formed fully by junior players. Among them Junaid Irfan carded 76 while Vivek Anand (78) and Omar Khalid (79) were the other prominent performers.

The ladies will tee off on Friday (today) and the prominent ones like Rimsha Ijaz, Parkha Ijaz, Dania and Suneyah are all in the race for an attempt to capture the national ladies golf title.