JA Zaman golf: Shabbir at top

LAHORE, Mar 10 (APP):The 5th J A Zaman Memorial Open Golf
Championship in progress at the par 72 Lahore Gymkhana Golf Course
with a lucrative cash purse of Rs1.7 million for the top 36 performers in the professional section, ,entered the final stage with the top ranked player of Pakistan Shabbir Iqbal , occupying the top of the leader board after a superb round of 62,ten under par here on Saturday,
Starting the day,one stroke behind the leader Shahid Javed Khan (Gymkhana),this star of many events of our national golf circuit,fired up his woods and irons and went round the 18 holes in gross 62 giving him an aggregate of 129 for two rounds,fifteen under par and helped him to acquire mental and physical control of this championship.Hamid Zaman ,the Head of Zaman Family who followed the champions through most of the second round was heartened and cheered up after watching an absolutely stunning display of power packed hitting and accuracy.”I really felt proud to be associated with this champion and this championship and compliment Shabbir Iqbal on his remarkable and sensational play”.During the round on Saturday, Shabbir had birdies on holes 1,2,6,7,8,10,11and 16,an eagle on the par -4,14th holes and regulation pars on the remaining nine holes.”I had a phenomenal round today thanks to the excellent state of the fairways and the smooth ball movement on the greens” and in that moment of glory he thanked Shaukat Javed and his team for a well maintained golf course.
While the victory bells have tolled for Shabbir Iqbal ,the other top participating professionals can only hope for positions other than the first.And undoubtedly many of them have put up a spectacular performance and their scores touch the excellence mark but not to the level achieved by Shabbir Iqbal.Such champions are Sunny Masih (Gymkhana ),Safdar Khan(Gujranwala) and Hamza Amin(Islamabad).Sunny and Safdar and Hamza stand bracketed at the second slot and their aggregate score for two rounds is 139,five under par.In the course of the second Sunny carded 71,Safdar Khan had a luminous and glittering 64 and Hamza had 69.
Other competing professionals for the final line up are Shahid Javed Khan(Gymkhana) 140 and also at 140 are Matloob Ahmed(Garrison) and Jafal Hussain(Gymkhana).Shafiq Masih is placed at a two rounds aggregate score of 141 followed by Muhammed Ashfaq(Airmen Golf Club at 143 and Talin Hussain(CDA) also at 143.
Out of the 70 professionals competing in this tournament,34 could not qualify for the final day and only 36 will be fighting it out for final honors and remunerative cash prizes.
Amongst the amateurs M.Rehman of Royal Palm continues to be the dominant one followed by Ghazanfar Mehmood(Garden City),Ahsan Khawaja(Gymkhana),Mohsen Zafar (Gymkhana),Jafar Irfan(Gymkhana) and Muhammed Saqib(Garrison).
Abdul Nafay caused ripples of excitement by having a hole in one on the par-3,4th hole and thereby winning the Toyota Car.