LAHORE: The contest for the prestigious Royal Palm Team Trophy enters the final phase and at the end of the second of three-round championship host team Royal Palm A and Multan teams emerged joint leaders here on Saturday.

The host team comprising Omer Salamat, Abbas Ali Khan, Mohsen Zafar and M. Rehman surged ahead and are the joint leaders along with Multan team manned by Zulfiqar Ali, Abdul Zahoor, Ashiq Hussain and Amir Shehzad.

Royal Palm-A and Multan teams have identical aggregated score 464.

Other teams in contention are Rawalpindi at a team score of 465, Gymkhana-A at 469, Defence Raya at 471 and Islamabad also at 471. Out of total 13 teams participating in the championship from all over Pakistan only nine will play on the final day while others stand weeded out.

Royal Palm-A team managed to improve their position through a tremendous effort on part of M. Rehman and devoted Mohsen Zafar.

For Multan the top performers have been Abdul Zahoor and Zulfiqar Ali and although they are seasoned golfers, the star touch was missing from their performances in the second round.

For Rawalpindi the good rounds came from Khalid Mehmood and Umer Khokhar and for Gymkhana Sardar Murad and Sameer Iftikhar were those who kept them in contention with a big shock for Gymkhana team being a rather miserable card of 83 by Salman Jehangir.

In the fight for top honors in the individual event, the frontrunner at the end of second round is Zohaib Asif of DHA Karachi with two-round scores of 72 and 74 and an aggregate of 146. Placed second is Islamabad’s Tariq Mehmood at a score of 149 followed by Abdul Zahoor (Multan) and Wazir Ali (Gymkhana) at 150.

Others in line are Ghazanfar Mehmood(Rawalpindi) at 151, M. Rehman (Royal Palm) at 153 along with Fakhar Imam, Naeem Khan and Mohsen Zafar.

Ladies will play 18 holes on Sunday with prominent ones being Mrs Sameea Javed Ali, Ghazala Yasmin, Maryama Khan, Nushmiya Sukhera, Ami Qin, Tehmina Zafar, Zen-ub-Nisa and Ana James Gill.

The finals will be played on Sunday and at the conclusion of the championship provincial sports minister Rana Mashood will give away the prizes. Challenge shield winner will also be decided on Sunday.