ISLAMABAD, Oct 10: Pakistan No 1 Shabbir Iqbal fired a five under 67 to go three strokes clear at the top of leader board in professional category in the opening round of the President of Pakistan Gold Medal golf championship at the Islamabad Golf Club here on Friday.

Shabbir carded three under on the front and two on the back with six birdies and one bogey.

Ansar Mehmood was three strokes behind with 33 on the front and registered a double bogey with a score of two under 70.

Talib Hussain and Rizwan Khan were tied for third place another stroke behind.

There was a five-way tie for the fifth place with Mohammad Sadiq, Mohammad Tariq, Sajjad Khan, Shahid Haleem and Mohammad Shehzad all getting a score of par.

In the senior professional category, Mohammad Ilyas (Lahore Gymkhana) carded two over to get a stroke clear of Shaukat Ali while Sultan Pervez (76) was trailing at the third place.

Najeeb Sadiq fired a two under 70 to lead amateur NET category (0 to 12 only) followed by Azhar Shah Bokhari and Hassan Zafar joint second at net 71 and Mohammad Rehman on third place at even par 72.

In the category of Senior Amateur, the tournament is being led by Lt Col Mohammad Safi with score of 84, closely followed by Lt Col Zaheer at 85 and M.S. Bajwa with score of 86.