KARACHI: It was all over by the 13th hole. Ahmed’s birdie meant it needed a spectacular meltdown from him over the last five holes to give any chance to his rivals.

At the start of the final round, it didn’t seem it would be so easy for the youngster. He held a very slim one-shot lead over defending champion Shabbir Iqbal and was only two strokes ahead of Mohammad Munir.

When he sank a birdie on the 13th hole, his fifth on a day on which he hit seven, he had raced to a seven stroke advantage over the duo. In the end, he won by eight.

The golf sensation, touted as the future of Pakistan golf, showed on Sunday not only does he have the ability to be a great player but also the nerves to handle pressure as he claimed the CAS Open Golf Championship in style, wrapping up his triumph with a birdie on the last hole for a six-under 66 and 10-under 278 overall.

“It was intense pressure out there today,” Ahmed told Dawn after collecting his second title since he turned professional last year. “Shabbir and Munir are two of Pakistan’s top golfers and it was in the back of my head that if I slip-up, they will be ready to cash in.

“Thankfully I kept my destiny in my hands with my performance. It’s great to be winning again,” added Ahmed, whose maiden professional title came at the Sindh Open in August last year.

Ahmed’s performance in the final round made up for a disastrous third-round show, by his standards, when he shot a 75 to give his rivals a sniff of a chance.

“I wanted to make up for it,” said Ahmed. “An hour before tee-off, I was out on the course playing shots with my wedge, driver and 2-iron. I just didn’t want to leave anything to chance.”

He didn’t. After narrowly missing a birdie on the first hole, Ahmed bogeyed the second. Thankfully for him, Shabbir had boyeyed the first hole although Munir had moved alongside Shabbir after the first two holes.

Shabbir was relentlessly trying to keep up. He birdied the third, bogeyed the fourth and then came back again with a birdie on the fifth to move level with Ahmed.

But Ahmed came roaring back with a long putt for birdie on the sixth and followed it up with another on the ninth. Shabbir’s bogey on the seventh meant he slipped three shots back at the end of the front nine.

“The birdie on the sixth changed everything really,” said Ahmed. “I got my putting form back after that.”

For sure, he did. Ahmed hit birdies on the 10th and 11th holes and ended the contest with another on the 13th. Then came birdies on 16th and 18th.

Shabbir (73) and Munir (72) finished joint second, two strokes clear of Mohammad Alam (74). Matloob Ahmed (73) and Sajjad Khan (75) finished another three shots behind.

Published in Dawn, January 27th, 2020