KARACHI: Title no 196 in the bag, Shabbir Iqbal is aiming to reach the career mark of 200 this year.

The way the Pakistan number one is playing, it’s a question of when rather than if. The bigger question is whether anyone can actually stop him accumulating titles one after the other.

Monday’s triumph at the CAS Open was third in three weeks. It was also a third tournament where he’s successfully defended his title. The only title that has eluded him this year is the Rashid D. Habib Memorial, which he lost in a playoff, before his winning run.The way he annihilated the rest of the field at the CAS, romping to a 13-stroke victory, it seems he’ll reach 197 by the end of this week at the DHA Karachi Cup, one of three tournaments in Karachi he failed to win last year.

He won the other five and despite his rivals, including Karachi Cup holder Ahmed Baig, struggling to keep pace with him, Shabbir isn’t taking anything for granted even if he feels title number 200 will come this year.“It’s not that I don’t feel challenged,” he told Dawn after a second successive round of eight-under 64 saw him finish on 20-under 268. “I think the other players will come up in the next tournament.”

Having started the final round at the Airmen Golf Course eight shots in front of Ansar Mehmood, Shabbir tied the course record for the second straight day as Ansar could only fire a 69 to finish second on 281.

Khalid Khan shot a 67 to finish third on 284, one ahead of Hamza Amin who also got a 67. A shot further adrift was a group of three comprising Matloob Ahmed (70), Rehmatullah (70) and Ahmed (73).

Shabbir, who won the Sindh Open and the Pakistan Open in the last two weeks, said it’s his all-round game which is helping him beat the competition.

“You have to work on every aspect of the game especially on the tee shot and the chip putt,” he added, “it can’t be that you’re good in one thing and lacking in the other.”

Published in Dawn, February 8th, 2022