KARACHI: When Matloob Ahmed is in his element, he hits birdies thick and fast. He hit nine in a rip-roaring performance on Thursday to seize the first-round lead at the eighth Rashid D. Memorial National Professional Golf Championship.

“It’s all about putting confidence,” Matloob told Dawn after he shot a seven-under 65 here at the Karachi Golf Club. “Once you’re putting well, you gain in confidence with every shot. Plus the hold on the greens [of the KGC] is very good so I was able to attack the pin and it really helped.”

Matloob’s performance put Hamza Amin’s 66 in the shade while Waheed Baloch is third, three shots behind the leader. Crucially, though, Matloob has build up a four-shot lead over two-time defending champion Shabbir Iqbal, his longtime nemesis. Shabbir was among a group of four golfers at 69.

“I hope I can continue in the same vein,” Matloob added, looking ahead to the second round. “I don’t have a very big lead that I stop playing attacking golf. I’ll try to increase my advantage and give my best.”

On the eve of the tournament, Matloob had spoken about deriving confidence from his performance in the final round of October’s CNS Open Asian Tour Golf Championship — the last event he played at the KGC. Then, he made up good ground to finish tied for fourth at the first Asian Tour event in the country in 11 years.

On Thursday, he went even better.

Starting off with a birdie, he hit a further four on the front nine. Even a bogey on the sixth hole didn’t seem to impede the serene progress he was making, as he followed them with a birdie on both the next two holes.

He reeled in three more birdies before coming up short on the 16th hole with a bogey but rounded off a splendid show with a birdie on the 18th.

The highlight of Hamza’s day was a superb eagle on the 10th hole. He also had six birdies but his hopes of emerging as the first-round leader were undone by two bogeys while Waheed struck five birdies and a bogey in his 68.

Pakistan number one Shabbir played a bogey-free round in which he struck three birdies. Alongside him are Ansar Mahmood, Amjad Yousuf and Mohammad Alam. Ansar and Amjad both had five birdies and two bogeys each while Alam had six birdies and three bogeys.

Mohammad Munir, who was the best local golfer at the CNS Open when he finished third, was among seven golfers who hit a 70 on a day when 23 golfers played a round of par or below.

Published in Dawn, January 11th, 2019