KARACHI, Aug 3: The 11th Chief of the Naval Staff (CNS) Open Golf Championship tees off at the picturesque course of Karachi Golf Club on Friday.

Around 300 plus golfers will be vying for honours in different categories of the three-day annual competition. The draws of the event were taken out by the organisers at KGC on Thursday. Shabbir Iqbal of Navy will be defending his professional crown while Ali Hai will defend his amateur title (gross) and Tariq Mahmood (net).

“We are keeping our fingers crossed despite the fact that the city is in the grip of rains,” Cdr. Junaid Zia told Dawn on Thursday evening.

Responding to a question he said the professional and amateur event could be curtailed from 54-holes to 36-holes spread over two days if it continued pouring on Friday morning.

To another question he said according to the rules, play could be stopped temporarily in case of rainfall during the event and could resume afterwards.