The top 77 amateur golfers of almost all golf courses of the country have reached Defence Raya Golf and Country Club Golf Course here for a fling at the Pakistan Amateur Golf title 2016. Also there are four national players from Afghanistan, two from Iran and two from Bangladesh to challenge the Pakistani top contenders, many of whom are heralded and rated highly and predictions, assessments and statistics seems to favour them, as they tee off today, at the perfect looking 18 holes Defence Raya Golf Course.
This championship was formally declared open said Brigadier Nayyar Afzal (Retd), Honorary Secretary of Pakistan Golf Federation in the presence of Brigadier Zafar Yasin, Administrator, Defence Housing Authority and all the foreign players and members of Pakistan team and the Inter Association teams on Wednesday. Ghazanfar Mehmood, the top ranked amateur of our national golf circuit is a champion whose consistency is almost automatic. He wins tournaments in unruffled fashion and having him as a participant in this National Championship is distressing news even for highly talented players like M. Rehman, Waseem Rana, Zohaib Asif, Salman Jehangir, Robin Bagh and Sajid Khan.
In this part of the country, however, the pundits look forward to performances from the highly talented young ones like Ahmed Baig, Nadeem Ahmed, Zunair Aleem, Taimur Shabbir, Walid Zubair and Ahmed Nawaz Tiwana. As regards the overseas players the Bangladesh duo comprising Mohammed Farhad and Mohammed Rasel look skilful and eager to use this opportunity of playing in Pakistan to good advantage. A victory here can fetch them big honours on the international front. For the past two days these two have been practising at the Defence Raya Golf Course, improving familiarity with the fairways and getting adjusted to the feel of the greens.
As for the playing arena, it is all ready to test the skills of the competing golfers with course length now stretching 6820 yards. From the championship markers the course is likely to present an exacting examination that requires meticulous shot placing accuracy due to the demanding fairways.