KARACHI: The first round of the Pakistan Golf Federation Inter-club Golf Championship teed off on a sweltering morning and ended with Lahore Garrison Greens taking a narrow lead overall.

Two strokes separate Lahore Garrison Greens and hosts Karachi Golf Club after a total of 24 amateurs and senior amateurs, who will play three rounds, opened the proceedings on Friday. Peshawar Golf Club trail the leaders by 29 strokes.

The ladies and juniors, who will play two rounds each, will begin play from Saturday with the winners to be crowned on Sunday.

Lahore Garrison Greens rode on a strong performance by their amateurs to go in front.

Noman Ilyas (72), Damil Attaullah (75) and Ahmad Kiyani (77) took them to an aggregate of 224, three strokes ahead of KGC for whom Hamza Shikoh Khan (75), Yashal Shah (76) and Abdullah Adil (76) returned the best three scores out of four.

Peshawar’s Hamza Khattak played the best round among amateurs, a one-under 71 but are seven shots off Lahore Garrison after Taimoor Durrani (79) and Kabir Ahmed (81) couldn’t match their team-mate’s display.

KGC cut Lahore Garrison’s advantage to two shots thanks to their senior amateurs.

Khurram Khan and Cdr Majid Satti returned identical cards of 78 while Cdre Shahid Habib shot an 80 for an aggregate of 236. Lahore Garrison’s Col Asif Mehdi, Col Mohammad Shafi and Tariq Mehmood all fired 79.

Peshawar’s senior amateurs weren’t able to find their range and returned an aggregate of 259.

Published in Dawn, September 11th, 2021