Brilliant Matloob claims R.D Habib Memorial Golf title

KARACHI: For the best part of his professional career, Matloob has played second fiddle to Pakistan No.1 Shabbir Iqbal.

But not on Sunday as Matloob conquered the Siberian winds to brush aside Shabbir’s challenge and win the season-opening Rashid D. Habib Memorial Golf Championship in style here at the Karachi Golf Club.

The Lahore-based Matloob was by far the most consistent pro at the wind-swept KGC course as he had scores of 71, 68 and 69 in the first three rounds. He began the final round with a healthy four-shot advantage and was never really challenged by Shabbir and M Munir as he carded the day’s best score of 68 to win the Rs7.9 million championship by a whopping margin of six strokes.

His four-day aggregate of 276 (-12) was quite impressive considering that the conditions weren’t easy because of strong winds throughout the duration of the tournament.

“It’s certainly a satisfying victory,” said Matloob, who is now hoping to do well in the forthcoming tournaments in Karachi.

Matloob made birdies on holes 1,5,7 and 9 on the Blue side where he had bogies on holes 6 and 8. On the Yellow side he had birdies on holes 10, 12, 14 and 17 and bogies on holes 15 and 18.

Shabbir, his nearest challenger, could card a final round score of 70 which wasn’t enough to put Matoob under any pressure. He finished as the runner-up with an aggregate of 282. Munir finished third with an aggregate of 284 after carding 72 on the final day. He was followed by M Alam (285), M Ashfaq (287), Hamza Amin (288), Talib Hussain (290), M Naeem (291)and M Nazir and Ahmed Saeed (293).

The event concluded with a well-attended prize distribution ceremony where Matloob received the winner’s trophy and a cheque of Rs707,250 from chief guest Commander Karachi Rear Admiral Zahid Ilyas. Also present was Abbas D Habib, Managing Director Bank AlHabib.

In the senior professionals’ category, Iftikhar Hussain of Rawalpindi Gymkhana won the title ahead of Tahir Nasim. Muhammad Saqib won the juniors professionals’ title. Akash Bashir was runner-up.

Muhammad Abid won in the KGC Professionals category. In the KGC Senior Professional category Saleem Inayat reigned supreme. In the KGC caddies category, Muhammad Javed was the winner.