Waheed fires 66 to take slim lead in Pakistan Open

KARACHI: The Karachi Golf Club has always been a happy hunting ground for Waheed Baloch. On Thursday, the seasoned local pro once again made full use of familiar conditions to take a slim one-shot lead in the UMA 48th Pakistan Open Golf Championship.

Waheed, who recorded an impressive win in the Rashid D Habib Memorial at KGC earlier this month, was in his element in the opening round of the country’s premier professional championship as he made a series of birdies to fire a stunning round of five-under par 66. In second place was Pakistan No.1 Shabbir Iqbal, who was also in full flow, carding four-under par 67.

In the amateurs category, the 17-year-old Omar Khalid took a one-shot lead as he carded a par-round of 71 to finish at No. 13 overall in a field that includes almost all the top professionals of the country.

Waheed made birdies on holes 1,4,6 and 8 with his only blemish on front nine coming on the monstrous par-4 second where he made a bogey. The hole is originally a par-5 but in order to raise the challenge, the event’s organisers have made it a par-4. It’s now a 505-yard par 4 which is why it was hardly surprising to see top notch pros like Waheed and Shabbir ending up with bogeys on it. Waheed also made birdies on holes 10, 12, 13, 15 and 18 but a double bogey on the par-3 17th prevented him from taking a sizeable lead.

Tied for the second place with Shabbir at 67 was the duo of Islamabad’s Sajjad Khan and Ansar Mehmood.

Hamza Amin, son of Pakistan’s legendary golfer Taimur Hassan, made a stunning recovery as he followed his 38 on the Blue side with a stunning 30 on the Red. He is at third place with 68.

Omar Khalid, an A levels student at Karachi’s Nixor College, who holds the record of being the youngest National Amateur champion of Pakistan, also made similar recovery as he birdied three of his last five holes to finish 71. He missed a series of short birdie putts on the front nine but then birdied holes 14, 17 and 18 to brighten his hopes of making the cut. In second place among the amateurs was Lahore’s Salman Jahangir who finished at 72 followed by Saim Shazli at 76.

Meanwhile, the event’s organisers defended their decision to restrict the number of amateurs competing in the Pakistan Open, which carries a lucrative prize basket of Rs10 million.

On Wednesday, Asad I.A Khan, Vice President of the Pakistan Golf Federation (PGF), had criticised PGF for allowing only 15 amateurs to take part in the Pakistan Open.

Col Zahid Iqbal, the tournament director, responded on Thursday by underlining PGF’s selection criteria.

According to the selection criteria, out of five mandatory ranking championships, PGF considered only National Amateurs held last year in Peshawar. Based on this criteria, PGF selected the top ten players in World Amateur Golf Rankings (WAGR). Top ten in the list of 61st National Amateur Golf Championship in Amateur category and top ten ranked players in PGF National Amateur Rankings.

“PGF aims to train Amateurs for competing in the international tournaments. This decision will improve the quality of game in amateur category as in the past, some amateurs have also won Pakistan Open,” Col Zahid claimed.