After the second round of this 54 holes and three rounds 3rd J. A. Zaman Memorial Open Golf Championship, in progress at the much revered par 72, Lahore Gymkhana Golf Course and now entering the final phase, the most dynamic player of the country, M. Shabbir Iqbal of Islamabad Golf Club reigns supreme.
In terms of rankings and victories Shabbir is now unmatched as far as competitive performances go and over the past decade he has won 118 golf championships and his hold over the golf circuit can be judged from the fact that as late as 2015 he won 15 titles in Open Championships held all over the golf courses of Pakistan.
From the position of superb golfing in this championship, Shabbir again lit up the championship with application of golfing that can be graded as world class. After a wonder packed display on the first day on Friday, he again continued to excel in the second round. The hitting off the tees was powerful, the fairway shots had crispness, accuracy and perfection. And all this was backed by champion like putting ability and this combination of golfing adeptness fetched him six birdies on holes 2,5,7,11,16 and 18, and to add to this he had regulation pars on 10 holes. As for the two stroke losses he had bogey's on holes 4 and 14 which makes him look human. His score for the two rounds is 135, nine under par moving into the final phase of the championship, he is three strokes ahead of Talib Hussain of CDA.
Talib Hussain (CDA) is showing a gutsy presence as a competitor and even while playing in the leaders golf fleet with Shabbir during the second round yesterday, he demonstrated golfing control and excellence and this resulted in helping him to a round of gross 70, two under par and a grand looking aggregate score of 138, six under par over two rounds.
During the second round Talib had an eagle on the 15th hole, birdies on holes 2,10,16 and over the other holes he scored eleven pars with stroke losses on the 12,13 and 14th holes, three in a row.
Other notable ones looking fairly good are Latif Rafiq of Gymkhana, the host club. He is placed at an aggregate score of 141 and those in close proximity are Muhammed Rizwan, Sunny John, Muhammed Waqas and Muhammed Tariq, all at a score of 143 followed by Shafiq Masih, Muhammed Khurshid, Sajjad Khan and Aashir Masih at 144. At the end of the second day a cut was made and out of 80 professionals, 48 were weeded out and only 32 will play on the final day on Sunday.
In the amateur's event, Sardar Murad Khan of Gymkhana leads the gross section with a score of gross 145 for two days, compiled through a round of 74 on the first day and 71 on the second day. Following him are Mohsen Zafar also of Gymkhana and Fakhar Imam of Defence Raya. Mohsen had two round scores of 77 and 71(aggregate 148) and Fakhar Imam managed scores of 72 (first day) and 78(second day) total being 150.Others in line are Robin Bagh 150, Wazir Ali 152,Aleem Rahman 155 and Zunair Aleem Khan 158.Also at 158 is Ahmed Baig.
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