Steady Mansoor takes lead as National Golf gets underway

KARACHI: Karachi’s Mansoor Teli took a three-shot lead on the opening day of the 60th National Amateur Golf Championship and in the process put Sindh A on track to win a rare Inter-Association Trophy here at the Karachi Golf Club on Thursday.

Mansoor, a highly-experienced KGC golfer, fully exploited familiar conditions to finish with an impressive round of 73 in extremely windy conditions. Together with Saim Shazli (76) and Omar Khalid (77), Mansoor gave Sindh A a six-shot lead in the two-day Inter-Association Golf Championship running concurrently with the National Amateurs.

In joint second place were the trio of Saim and Punjab’s Ralfay Raja and Ahmed Kayani at 76. They were followed by Omar Khalid, Abdullah Arif, Qasim Ali Khan and Saeed Khattak at 77.

With gusty winds blowing all day, conditions were quite challenging for the participating golfers on the opening day of the prestigious championship. In addition to the strong winds, tricky greens on both the Red and Blue courses also posed a major challenge to the participants.

Meanwhile, Sindh A have catapulted themselves into a strong position to win the Inter-Association Trophy. Together, the trio of Mansoor, Saim and Omar aggregated 226 points. They have a six-shot advantage against second-placed Punjab B (232). Punjab B includes Ahmed Sultan, Ralfay Raja and Damil Ataullah. In third place are Sindh B followed by Punjab A, Federal and KP teams.

The second round of the 72-hole amateurs’ event will continue on Friday (today). The seniors and ladies events will begin on Friday.

Following is the amateurs’ leader-board after the first round:

73: Mansoor Teli

76: Saim Shazli, Ralfay Raja, Ahmed Kayani

77: Omar Khalid, Abdullah Arif, Qasim Ali Khan, Saeed Khattak.

78: Omer Shikoh, Yashal Shah, Junaid Irfan, Umer Khokhar, Nadir Khan, Brig Omer Ijaz, Salman Jahangir

79: M A Mannan, Akbar Qayyum, Muslim Abbas, Noman Asghar, Hamza Shikoh.

80: Abdullah Adil, Abdul Moez, Damil Ataullah, Danyal Khan, Zia Hai, Salman Khan.