KARACHI: After winning a championship battle that went down to the wire, down to the last hole and down to the last shot, Shabbir Iqbal celebrated it in his signature style: Breaking into a wide grin and tossing his putter in the air.

And after his closest rival Ahmed Baig sank his putt moments later in a thrilling climax to the CNS Open Golf Championship on Sunday, the celebrations resumed again. This time, Shabbir wasn’t alone. Mobbed by his fans and members of Pakistan’s golfing fraternity, he raised his arms and roared in joy.

This was the 12th time in 25 editions of the CNS Open that Shabbir had come out on top and it was his fourth victory in five tournaments in Karachi this year.

Finally, the country’s top professional golfer made time to talk.

“I wasn’t taking because I didn’t want to lose my concentration,” Shabbir told Dawn when asked about his self-imposed policy of not speaking to reporters until the end of the tournament. “I wanted to stay focused on the job at hand and win the tournament.” That, he did by the narrowest of margins. “It was tense … it really was. It was a battle till the end.”

Shabbir and Ahmed were level going into the final hole. Odds were stacked against Shabbir after a wayward tee shot but he still made a par while Ahmed bogeyed.

Shabbir’s three-under 69 in the final round saw him finish at 12-under 276, one ahead of Ahmed (68). Overnight leader and defending champion Matloob Ahmed’s challenge had faded earlier and he finished in third, four shots behind Shabbir, after a 74.

Mohammad Alam’s 69 saw him end fourth on 281, two shots ahead of Mohammad Munir (73). Opening round leader Waheed Baloch (73) was a shot further adrift in sixth while Mohammad Nazir (74) ended on 285, one clear of Mohammad Zubair (70) and Mudassir Iqbal (73).

Yashal Shah won the amateurs’ title after a final-round 69 saw him edge overnight joint-leader Omar Khalid, hampered by a muscle strain, by one stroke in another close battle. Arsalan Shikoh Khan, the other overnight leader, finished third, six strokes behind.

Yashal started the day eight strokes off the lead but his stunning performance took him to 303 after Omar could only manage a 78 and Arsalan finished with an 83.

Shabbir didn’t have to overcome that big a deficit in the professionals’ final round.

Starting the day a stroke adrift of Matloob and two shots ahead of Ahmed, he birdied the first hole to erase Matloob’s advantage. Another birdie followed for Shabbir on the second but Matloob matched him and that meant Ahmed, who parred the first two holes, was now four strokes behind the leaders.

Shabbir then went in front as he birdied the fourth while Matloob made a par. Ahmed reeled in birdies on the fourth and fifth holes and when Shabbir bogeyed the sixth, it gave Ahmed more impetus. A birdie on the seventh meant he was now within one stroke of Shabbir and Matloob and that was how it stayed by the end of the front nine as Shabbir gave up an advantage he’d opened up with a birdie on the eighth with a bogey on the ninth.

Munir was alongside the leading trio in the final round leader flight. A third-round 67 had took him to within four shots off the lead but he was all but out of title contention after the front nine as he fell a further two shots behind. “Some days, you just can’t get your shots right and today was that day,” he told Dawn.

Ahmed seized the initiative on the turn, firing birdies on the 10th and 12th holes as Matloob’s hold on the lead began to loosen after he bogeyed those two holes. Shabbir also birdied the 12th and it meant with six holes to play, Matloob had fallen three shots behind him and Ahmed.

On the 15th, Matloob was well and truly out of the race with a third bogey in six holes. “My putting was really bad today,” he told Dawn. “I just couldn’t get it right. I made some bad missed and ending up paying for it.”

Ahmed had gone clear with a birdie on the 15th but he relinquished it soon after as he bogeyed the 16th, paving the way for a dramatic finish.

Shabbir ended wide in the rough with his tee shot on the par-4 last hole, meaning his next shot had to cross through a cluster of trees to get close to the green. Ahmed had ended on the other side in the rough but with a clearer view of the green. If he kept his shot low, he had a good chance of landing on the green.

Shabbir went first, his shot going all the way through, the ball landing just wide of the green. Ahmed couldn’t even get close, his shot hitting a hanging branch only a few metres away, the ball landing dead under it.

It was a moment of despair for the youngster. He knew he’d blown his chance and once again, as in three out of five tournaments in Karachi this year, he’d finish second-best to Shabbir.

“I’ll learn from this,” Ahmed told Dawn. “This defeat hurts but it will inspire me to come back stronger.”

It was Shabbir’s title to lose after that. And he made sure he did nothing wrong as a sublime chip set him up for the winning putt.

Published in Dawn, July 12th, 2021