ISLAMABAD, Oct 9: The 42nd Caltex National Amateur golf championship went off to a fine start with Pakistan captain Dr. Aimal Zaman, Sri Lanka’s N. Amarspadma and M. Milon Ahmed of Bangladesh teeing off as part of the first three-ball ‘flight’ a technical term in golfing terms, says a press release.

Scores of the opening round were not flattering in this International Team match and a not a single card carried the under par touch. That in no way belittled the effort of the day’s joint leaders, Aimal and Tariq Mahmood who had scores of 72. Both are members of Pakistan national team.

Aimal’s round of par 72 could have been much better. He missed an eagle put on the 17th from 3 feet and again a birdie put on the 18th from a similar distance.

Tariq, whose strength lies in his short game was generally steady and though a touch of brilliance was lacking, his game was tilted around the steady bench mark.

The leaders after the first 18 holes were Aimal 72, Tariq 72, Shahid Javed Khan 75, Siddik ur Rehman (Bangladesh) 75, M. Milon Ahmed (Bangladesh) 75, Vaqas Ahmed 76, Lalaith Kumara (Sri Lanka) 77.

Meanwhile in the juniors competition, Danyal Jehangir, a 7 handicapper of Lahore Gymkhana and a member of the Punjab junior team was atop the leader board despite a damaging triple bogey on the closing 18th. Although ahead, Danyal was fairly shaken by his poor showing on the last hole.

A stroke behind Danyal was Hamza Amin, another 7 handicapper and a contender for the junior national title. Other Juniors deserving a mention were Umair Saleem and Hamza Haroon who had rounds of 86 and 87 respectively.

The trio of Hamza, Hamza Haroon and Umair helped the Federal Golf Association junior team to an aggregate score of 254 and lead Punjab by 14 strokes.