Waheed, Akbar share lead as CAS Open Golf tees off

KARACHI: Karachi’s seasoned professional Waheed Baloch and Quetta’s little-known Akbar Khan shared the lead on the opening day of the Chief of Air Staff (CAS) Open Golf Championship 2021 here at the Airmen Golf Club on Thursday.

In windy conditions, both Waheed and Akbar fired impressive rounds of two-under par 70 to share the pole position on the leader-board of the Rs8 million championship.

Regarded as one of Pakistan’s toughest golf courses, the Airmen course turned out to be extremely challenging even for experienced pros like the country’s ace player Shabbir Iqbal who ended the day with a par round of 72.

But Waheed was in top form as he played steady golf on his way to 70.

Behind the leaders was Islamabad’s Hamza Amin who shot 0ne-under par 71. He was joined in the third place by Muhammad Nazir and Akhtar Ali. Two shots off the pace was a pack of seven golfers – Shabbir Iqbal, Muhammad Safdar, Asad Khan, Muhammad Azam, Muhammad Shehzad, Muhammad Zubair and Taimur Khan.

Defending champion Ahmed Baig made a stunning start to the opening round when he made full use of a strong tail wind to hit his tee shot on the green on the par-4 first hole for an eagle. But Ahmed failed to capitalize on the splendid start and finished the round with a card of 73. Also on 73 is Ahmed’s fellow Lahore mate Matloob Ahmed.

Rising junior professional Abdul Wadood shot the best round of the day when he carded a superb 68 in the junior professionals’ category. He has a six shot lead over Shahzeb Khan (74).

In the amateurs’ category, national amateur champion Omar Khalid shared the lead with Omar Shikhoh Khan at 81.

Omar, who at 16 became the youngest national champion of Pakistan last month, struggled on the greens ending the day with a disastrous tally of seven three-putts.

Omar just managed one birdie on the fifth hole as he had two double bogeys and a series of bogies but still ended at the top of the leader-board with Omar Shikoh. In third place is the big-hitting Hamza Zahid Khan (82), Saim Shazli, Hamza Shikoh Khan (83), Sameer Sayeed, Arsalan Shikoh Khan and Zia Hai (85).