In the course of third day of the four days Nabi Yousaf Memorial Professional Golf Challenge Cup being contested at the Royal Palm Golf and Country Club Golf Course the Royal Palm ace Shahid Javed Khan stayed on track to manage and successfully retain occupation of the top position on the leader board.
While this represents heartening news for him and his fans, the challenging aspect that has cropped its head is that he shares the top slot with the most established one of the national golf scene, Shabbir Iqbal of Islamabad. On the third day of the Championship Shahid Javed had a round of 71, which gave him an aggregate score of 209, seven under par for three rounds. As against this Shabbir came up with a third round score of 70 and a three days aggregate similar to that accumulated by Shahid Javed. Both of them are placed at an impressive aggregate of 209, seven under par, going into the final phase of this grand event organized by Royal Palm for the professional golfers exclusively to show respect and regard for their superb golf playing skills.
Quite a few of the other contenders like Afsar Ali (Karachi Golf Club), Sajjad Khan (Gujranwala), Muhammed Imran (Defence Raya), Matloob Ahmed (Lahore Garrison), Muhammed Tariq (Islamabad) and Sunny Masih (Gymkhana) continue to play good golf but they lag behind the leaders to an extent that there is no possibility of making any dent on the winning chances of either Shahid Javed or Shabbir Iqbal. So the final round will be a battle between the skills and temperament of Shabbir and Shahid while the others have to be content with positions other than the first or second. Overnight leader Shahid Javed Khan (Royal Palm) who is seeking a victory in this prestigious championship which will automatically afford him huge honors and lucrative prize money started off exceedingly well on the third day and with birdies on holes 2,3,5 and 7 he reached a score of ten under par after seven holes. Just when things started to look cheery the bogie virus struck and he lost a stroke first on the 8th hole and thereafter on the 10th and 12th holes.