Sports Bulletin
KARACHI:-The local golfer from Karachi Golf Club (KGC) earned a vital lead in the Pakistan Open Golf Championship 2022 that teed off on Thursday here.
In the combined category of Professionals and Amateurs, Waheed Baloch of Karachi Golf Club is leading with five under par on the completion of first day. Defending Champion Shabbir Iqbal and Sajjad Khan of ICGC along with Ansar Mehmood of MGC were behind him with joint score of four under par. Total 109 professionals and amateurs participated on day one.
The brilliant aspect of UMA 48th Pakistan Open Golf is that PGF has selected top ranked Amateurs to play and compete with top ranked Professionals from the same tee thus providing chance to top amateurs to compete with Professionals. According to PGF selection criteria, out of five mandatory championships, PGF considers only National Amateur held in 2021 in Peshawar. Based on this criteria, PGF has taken top ten National World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR) players. Top ten in the list of 61st National Amateur Golf Championship in Male Amateur category and top ten ranked players in PGF National Amateur Rankings. Hence, common Top 15 selected for participation.
Tournament Director Col Zahid Iqbal said, “PGF aims to train Amateurs for competing in the international tournaments. This decision will improve the quality of game in amateur category as in the past some amateurs have also won Pakistan Open.”
Waheed Baloch of Karachi Golf Club recently claimed title of 11th Rashid D Habib Golf Tournament and has benefits of home ground, came up as challenge Shabbir would face. UMA 48th Pakistan Open Golf 2022 has the highest prize money of PKR 10 Million, with return Dubai ticket along with golf rounds as Hole-in-One prize for the first claim.”
The Championship will be played over 72 holes of stroke play (18 holes each day) & 151 Professional Golfers along with Top ranked Amateurs from all over the country participated in order to contest & claim the title of Pakistan Champion for the year 2021-22. The Championship will be played stroke play under three categories Professionals/ Amateurs (72 Holes), Senior Professionals (54 Holes) & Junior Professionals (54 Holes).
