KARACHI: Having led from the start, Waheed Baloch now needs the perfect finish on Sunday.

Another impressive performance at the Karachi Golf Course on Saturday gave him a three-under 69 for a total of 13-under 203 and now he heads into the final round of the Rashid D. Habib Memorial National Professional Golf Tournament five shots in front of Pakistan number one Shabbir Iqbal and Hamza Amin, who is chasing his first ever title in a championship in Karachi.

A victory for Waheed, meanwhile, will mark his first triumph in Karachi since winning the same tournament in 2016.

“I will play my own game and adjust according to the situation,” Waheed told Dawn, when asked whether he was feeling the pressure of being in the lead.

It feels like things are finally falling in place for Waheed, who’d been a first round leader at two tournaments last year only to fall down the order in the following rounds.

“I had hard luck on those occasions,” he reflected. “Both times I lost the ball and couldn’t recover.”

This time, he’s held on. This time, there has been no lost ball. This time, his shots have been true. This time, luck hasn’t deserted him.

Having only bogeyed once each in the opening two rounds, he had two bogeys in the third. Otherwise, he’s been near flawless.

Waheed got his first birdie of the round on the third hole and there were more on the fifth and eighth holes. He bogeyed the 11th but then reeled off successive birdies on the 14th and 15th holes only to finish with a bogey.

On the final day, he can expect a strong challenge from Shabbir — a winner of five out of eight tournaments in Karachi last year.

Shabbir had started the day four shots off the lead but now finds himself five adrift after he could only manage a 70 to move level with Hamza (72).

Having started off with a birdie, Shabbir finished the front nine with two bogeys before hitting three birdies on the back nine to stay in contention.

Ansar Mehmood (72) is a further two shots adrift in third, two ahead of Talib Hussain (73). Mohammad Ashfaq (72) and Mohammad Munir (73) are tied at 213, one shot ahead of a group of five that includes two-time winner Matloob Ahmed (73) and Pakistan’s rising golf star Ahmed Baig, who hit an eagle and six birdies in a stunning round of seven-under 65.

Ahmed had struggled in the opening rounds but showed on Saturday exactly why he’s regarded as the country’s next big hope in the game. Just that it might be too late for him to mount a title challenge on Sunday.

The way the first three rounds have gone, the title is Waheed’s to lose.

Published in Dawn, January 16th, 2022