The third J. A. Zaman Memorial Open Golf Championship was started at the historic par 72, Lahore Gymkhana Golf Course on Friday. After the completion of first 18 holes in this three days 54 holes competition, Muhammed Shabbir Iqbal produced a round of excellence with a superb score of gross 67, five under par.
This highly spell binding score was achieved through birdies on holes 5, 6, 7, 11, 15 and 17 eleven regulation pars and he also had to absorb a bogey on hole 13. By virtue of this delightful performance Shabbir looks set to command the proceedings of the championship from the word go. Out of the other 79 professionals vying for lucrative cash prizes in the J. A. Zaman Championship, quite a few have also set a good bench mark through champion like display of quality golf and at least 15 of them managed scores of under par or even par.
Talib Hussain of Islamabad matched the outstanding performance of the leader, Shabbir with a round of gross 68, four under par thereby facing just one stroke deficit behind Shabbir. The others who are placed behind Shabbir and Talib Hussain are Shahid Javed Khan(Royal Palm) at 70,Daanyaal Jehangir,Muhammed Rizwan,Shafiq Masih ,Sunny John all from Gymkhana at 71, Muhammed Khurshid (Islamabad) 71 and Muhammad Afzal (Okara) also 71.
The professionals are happy with the prize money in this Championship which is lucrative and has been made possible by the Zaman Family. Hamid Zaman, felt really pleased with performances of the top contenders. In the race for dominance amongst amateurs, the man ahead is Fakhar Imam of Defence Raya with a score of gross 72. Robin Bagh is one stroke behind at 73 with Sardar Murad at 74 and Wazir Ali and Taimur Shabbir Shabbir at 77.
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