By Sohail Ali
LAHORE, Feb 03 (APP):The 1st Fatimah Jinnah Ladies Amateur Golf Championship (World Ranking) will tee off at the sublime and delightful par 72 Royal Palm Golf and Country Club Golf Course from tomorrow Friday.
For three days (54 holes) the skillful golf playing ladies of the country will assemble here to match golfing prowess, competitive capabilities, performance oriented flair and in the process fulfill their winning urges and unlock the door to personal excellence.
With ladies golf making headway and evolving splendidly and effectually captivating non golf playing young and little females, participation numbers are remarkable and already eighty ladies have registered for this esteemed Championship named after the most illustrious Mader-e-Millat, “Mother of the Nation”.
As intimated by Minaa Zainab the Lady Golf Captain of Royal Palm and an executive committee member of Punjab Golf Association, the format is stroke play and competition will be over 54 hole for ‘A Category’ lady participants who play to a golf playing handicap ranging between zero to 14. As for the B Category hopefuls, the handicap range is 15-24 and they will engage over 36 holes (two rounds) and similarly the C Category rookies playing to high handicaps arrayed between 25 and 36 will combat over two rounds (36 holes).
By virtue of this categorization the race for top honors becomes equitable and realistic and that sends ripples of elation amongst the contestants who feel sanguine about success and victory by performing more forcefully than their adversaries and the good feeling is that the competitive playing field is level.
Most skillful are Parkha Ijaz of Defence Raya, Ghazala Yasmin of Lahore Garrison and Iman Ali Shah of Lahore Gymkhana. These three have already become role models for the upcoming ones.
Over the past couple of years their excellence on the golf arenas of Pakistan have uplifted their status as admirable and proficient ones and they have the technical ability to hit powerful shots off the tees and when it comes to crafty play in or around the greens the synchronization between their golf sticks and the golf ball is as dexterous as should be. And through champion like tackling of the golf course challenges they continue to prove themselves as sports ladies of excellence.
In the other categories ladies like Amina Tiwana, Aisha Moazzam, Nighat Akram and Samina Ishtiaq are on the rise and the amount of effort they are endeavoring to apply to enhance their playing capabilities is impressive indeed and in this Fatima Jinnah Ladies Golf Event they are expected to come up with amazing reverberations.
This tournament also has sections for junior girls and senior ladies. Talented junior girls are many, between the ages 7 years to 13 years and include tiny ones like Syeda Noor Zahra Shah, Zoay Qureshi, Noor Bano Chaudhry, Zara Zaman Khan, Mahnoor Syed, Aminah Ali Khan (all below 10 years ) and relatively elder kids like Areej Atif, Myshe Binte Mohsin, Aleesa Almas Rashid, Uswa Siddique, Natalia, Mahnoor, Anabia, Yasmeen, Shanzay and Zainab, all below 13 years.
Senior ladies section includes names like Ayesha Hamid, an accomplished one of the corporate world, Mrs Umber Javaid (PGF member) and Mrs Yasmin Mubarik a champion of yester years. Mrs Yasmin was till two decades back an admirable champion who completely dominated the ladies golf segment. That she is back to compete means she is in good playing form.
Prizes at stake are golf kits, golf clubs and a huge attraction is a car for a hole in one and the championship is backed by Pakistan Golf Federation, Punjab Golf Association and Gourmet.
