KARACHI: There was drama at the Karachi Golf Club during the Pakistan Golf Federation Inter-Club Championship on Sunday.

Lahore Garrison Greens had completed their play in the final round on a sweltering day but it was only then that they realised that it was all in vain.

A decision taken at 9:30am had already sealed their fate when they had been disqualified following the late arrival of lady golfer Zahida M. Durrani, who had mistakenly gone to the wrong course for the tee off.

It meant that despite finishing on an aggregate of 2753, LGG lost out to hosts KGC who finished with 2775. LGG’s score didn’t count at all, with Peshawar Golf Club ending runners-up at 2904.

“If we had known that for all our efforts, we’d be disqualified for what wasn’t even our fault, we wouldn’t have even played,” one disgruntled LGG member, wishing to remain anonymous, said.

The whole episode cast a shadow on what had been an intriguing day of golf as LGG went into the final day holding a narrow 10-stroke lead.

KGC edged LGG by three strokes at the end of the amateurs’ contest and were also outright winners in both junior boys categories.

LGG won the senior amateurs and junior girls events while their disqualification in the ladies amateurs saw Peshawar win that category.

The amateurs was a close contest. KGC, who entered with a seven-shot lead, had the best individual round by Saim Shazli (74) on Sunday for a three-round total of 669 as LGG’s Noman Ilyas, Damil Attaullah and Ahmad Kiyani each fired a 76 to finish on 672.

The junior girls event saw the biggest margin of victory for a team with LGG’s Bushra Fatima (82) and Hadiya Osama (96) helped them finish at 352 across four rounds and a 41-stroke lead over Peshawar. It didn’t matter in the end though for them.

LGG might have not ended with the big prize but their golfers produced the best rounds on Sunday.

Tariq Mehmood’s even-par 72 was the highlight of the senior amateurs’ final round, which LGG won by 10 strokes, while there was another 72 by LGG’s Suneyah Osama in the ladies category.

Samir Rizwan Feroz of KGC had the day’s best round of 76 in the junior boys under-18 contest while his club-mate Abdullah Ansar returned a card of 73 in the junior boys under-15 category.

Published in Dawn, September 13th, 2021