The PGF Pakistan Golf Federation Match Play Golf Championship 2020 commenced at the charming and fascinating Royal Palm Golf Course.
This is an event of national standing that is being contested over five days from 7th to 11th October and promises an engaging golfing battle between the top twenty five golf professionals of the country who are eligible to participate based on their national ranking .
Parallel to this will run a contest between the leading golf amateurs of the national golf circuit. Format of this championship requires that first two rounds will be contested on stroke play basis to be followed by a match play encounter over three days from 9th to 11th October. While others will be weeded out after the first two rounds, only the 16 top qualifiers in professional category and a similar number in amateur category will be eligible for the Match Play contest.
As the first round concluded on Wednesday, M. Munir a golf professional of Rawalpindi Golf Club displayed stunning form combined with an incredibly superb application of golfing expertise to aggregate a score of gross 65, seven under par over 18 holes. Every aspect of his game was power loaded, skill enriched and masterly. His round was bogie free and included five birdies and an eagle on the 12th hole achieved through a five wood 225 yards shot that ended up three feet from the hole.
Another champion who out-shined his adversaries was M. Alam of Defence Raya. For Alam this represented a great occasion as his command was champion like and the result impressive and rewarding. His round of gross 68, four under par reflects how well he played and the score is attributable to seven birdies on holes 3, 4, 6, 7, 12, 15 and 17, eight regulation pars and three bogies on holes 3, 13 and 14.
Others who played well are M. Shabbir of Islamabad who ended the first round with a score of gross 70 followed by Ahmed Baig at 71 and Kamran Shafiq and Arif Ali at 72.
The position amongst the amateurs stands tilted in favour of Salman Jehangir of Lahore Gymkhana. His score in the first round was gross 74. Another amateur with an applaudable performance is Qasim Ali Khan (Gymkhana), his score being gross 75.Three amateurs are bracketed at a score of 77. They are Hussain Hamid (Royal Palm), Danish Javed and Muhammed Arsalan (Gymkhana).
The Championship will continue on Thursday with first tee off at 8 am.
