LAHORE, Nov 17: Fakhar Imam of Lahore Garrison fired a card of three-under-par 67 to emerge first day leader of the 45th national amateur golf championship at the Lahore Gymkhana course on Thursday.

Playing in a mild and pleasant weather, Fakhar played remarkably well, completing the first nine holes in 33 strokes.

He birdied on the holes 1, 3 and 9 and bogeyed on 7 and 8.

On the inward half Fakhar managed a 34, with birdies on 10, 14 and 18 and just one stroke lost on the par 4, 16th.

He, however, faced good fight from Chiragh Kumar of India. The Indian came up with accurate hitting off the tee and good work on the greens.

Chiragh, ranked No 2 in India, scored birdies on 1, 5 and 8 and one stroke lost on the 16th.

Other strong contenders are Tariq Mehmood at 71 and M. Saddique of Bangladesh at 72.

In the international team match, Indian team with aggregate of 218 are leading by one stroke over Pakistan.

The Indian team comprises Chiragh (68), Simarjeet Singh (73) and Manav Das (77).

Pakistan aggregated 219 with contributions from Tariq Mehmood (71), Muhammad Ali Hai (73) and M. Safdar Khan (75).

Sri Lankans failed to excel on the first day, but hopefully they will give better performance in the coming three days.

The competitions for the ladies and seniors will start from Friday.The women players from Iran, India and Pakistan are competing in the event.

Results:

67- Fakhar Imam

68- Chiragh Kumar (Ind)

71- Tariq Mehmood

72- M. Saddique-Ur-Rehman (BD)

73- M. Ali Hai, Simarjeet Singh (Ind)

74- Muhammad Shahid (BD), Shahzad Ali, Waseem Rana, Ansar Mehmood, Shoaib.