After five days of fighting match play contests, Salman Jehangir of Lahore Gymkhana emanated as the worthy champion of Match Play contest by beating Hussain Hamid of Royal Palm.
With four holes to go Salman Jehangir was five up and that meant his adversary had to concede victory as per tradition and practice. By achieving this resplendent success Salman Jehangir has secured national honours for himself, his parent club, Lahore Gymkhana and brought a cheer to the life of his ailing father and golf mentor, Jehangir Aziz , a golfer of merit in his younger days.
The 36 holes formidable match play encounter between Salman Jehangir and Hussain Hamid teed off at 8 am at the Royal Palm Golf Course and noticeable was the exhilaration all around when these adversaries hit their opening tee shots on the first hole, a par four measuring 430 yards. Tee shots were well timed and magnificent and brought applause from their yearning fans and one wonders what the Creator must be feeling as each players near and dear ones were seen throwing their hands up in intense meditative prayers. For the first five holes it was all pragmatic and business like application of golfing skills and then suddenly Hussain Hamid hit an errant tee shot on the 7th hole and Salman Jehangir who was playing like a man possessed started to show his mastery. Two birdies helped him exhibit his excellence and this backed by regulation pars uplifted his command and control and enabled him to end up four up after the completion of the first nine holes. Thereafter, Hussain Hamid did try to chisel his game but nothing seemed to make an impression. Salman was completely in command. In no way could one imagine Hussain cutting back the lead. This kind of advantage becomes a daunting prospect in a match play situation for any opponent. It goes to the credit of Hussain Hamid that he scored regulation pars right from the 19th to the 31st hole but while he was steady and impressive, his opponent continued to retaliate with brilliance.
Salman Jehangir finished the marathon golfing session with a superlative display of golfing expertise and surfaced as the worthy match play champion for 2021-22. Final Results were: Salman Jehangir (Lesco-WAPDA) Trophy and Gold Medal winner; Hussain Hamid (Royal Palm) Siver Medal; Danish Javed (Lesco-WAPDA) Bronze Medal.
At the conclusion of the 2nd PGF Match Play Championship Lt Gen (r) Khalid Maqbool awarded prizes to the winners.
