JA Zaman golf championship moves into top gear as professional marched ahead

LAHORE, Mar 09 (APP):The 5th J.A.Zaman Memorial Open Golf Championship moved into top gear as the leading professional and amateur golfers of the country here on Friday at the Gymkhana Golf Course.
The day turned out to be for the champions of the national golf scene as they progressed through the first 18 holes with a sparkling show of skills and golfing ability and technique and the classic display of rhythm and command over skill application brought forth amazing scores of excellence.
At the end of the Friday’s round of 18 holes, Shahid Javed Khan of Gymkhana who is ranked 4th in the country, produced the best round of the day with a brilliant score of gross 66,six under par. Throughout the first round, he displayed excellent shot making ability and some real good putting on the greens. Shahid Javed had birdies on five holes (hole numbers 1,2,8,15,17),an eagle on the par-5,7th hole ,pars on eleven holes (3,4,5,6,9,10,11,12,14,16 and 18) and just one bogey on hole number 13th.Shahid Javed is a leader after the first 18 and he is ahead of champions like Matloob Ahmed (ranked two) and M.Shabbir (top ranked player of Pakistan)
Although he is ahead of these accomplished stars ,the sharpness of the competition whispers in his ears that challengers are just a stroke away. Matloob Ahmed performed brilliantly too and so did Shabbir Iqbal.Another one who looked perfection oriented is Latif Rafiq of Gymkhana.All these three are bracketed at a score of gross 67 ,five under par ,just one stroke behind the leader. Interestingly Latif Rafiq who is not amongst the top ranked players , demonstrated all round golfing capabilities, the tee shots were power packed and the shots off the fairways were crisp and accurate and on most off the par four holes his second shot was within six to eight feet of the flagstick.His gross score of 67 represents a spectacular effort and included birdies on holes 6,7,11,15 and 16 and had regulation pars on thirteen holes.
Champions of the class of Muhammad Shabbir and Matloob Ahmed may not be front runners after the first day but their presence amongst the competing hopefuls was not devoid of force. They were splendid off the tees and did not miss a single fairway and all the par fours needed a wedge shot to get to the green. Mohammad Shabbir managed a round of gross 67 and so did Matloob Ahmed.
Others competitors in line are Shahid Hanif (Gymkhana )68 and Sunny Masih(Gymkhana ,also 68.At a score of 69 are two hopefuls, Muhammad Tariq (Islamabad) and Talat Ijaz(Gymkhana).As for Talat Ijaz ,he had the maximum birdies ,eight in number during the Friday’s round.For him this is definitely a record.More hopefuls who did well are Tahir Naseem ,70 and also at 70 are Waheed Baloch and Hamza Amin.
As for the amateurs ,Muhammed Rehman of Royal Palm carded a round of gross 72,a score also matched by Ghazanfar Mehmood of Garden City Golf Club ,Islamabad.At gross 75,lie Mohsen Zafar,Jafer Irfan and Muhammed Saqib.
The second round will commence tomorrow, Saturday at 7AM.