KARACHI: It seems that an eagle on the second hole of the red course at the Karachi Golf Club is a fortune-changer for golfers competing at this year’s Rashid D. Habib Memorial Professional Golf Tournament.

In the opening round it changed the course of Hamza Amin’s day and on Friday it did exactly the same for Pakistan number one Shabbir Iqbal. In both cases it was the 11th hole for them.

After an opening front nine in which Shabbir could only manage two birdies, an eagle on the 11th not only made up for a bogey on the 10th but also changed momentum for him.

Shabbir then reeled off birdies on each of the next three holes and got another on the final hole to return a card of five-under 67 and move into a share of the lead with Hamza at 138.

Hamza’s bid to remain the sole leader collapsed on the last six holes of the second round. He’d gone bogey-free till the 12th hole, hitting three birdies, but then had three bogeys on the 13th, 15th and 18th holes to finish on 71.

“I had a better day than yesterday but my putting let me down,” a rueful Hamza told Dawn. “I missed a lot of opportunities today.”

A shot adrift of the lead are Mohammad Ashfaq (69) and Taimoor Khan (70).

Ashfaq had made a blistering start to the second round, hitting birdies on each of his first four holes. But he couldn’t keep it up with just one birdie to show for in the next 14 holes.

Taimoor was more sedate as he had three birdies and went bogey-free until the 16th hole, which was the only blot on his card.

Waheed Baloch remains the sole golfer on 140 after he managed a 71 featuring three birdies.

A shot behind Waheed is a group of four which includes rising star Ahmed Baig (71), Mohammad Munir (72) as well as Shahbaz Masih and Mohammad Zubair who both fired rounds of 68. Zubair hit six birdies, one more than Shahbaz.

Mohammad Alam (70) and Jafal Hussain (72) are both at 142, one shot ahead of Aadil Jahangir (72), Mohammad Zubair (72), Arif Ali (73) and Ashiq Hussain (74).

It was a tough day for two-time defending champion Matloob Ahmed who finds himself eight strokes off the lead after he returned a 76.

With the cut set at 150, the field has now been reduced to 52 for the last two days of the tournament.

Published in Dawn, March 27th, 2021