KARACHI: Ahmed Baig hung on to his lead, barely. His two-shot advantage at the Rashid D. Habib Open Golf Championship has been whittled down to one and he heads into Sunday’s final round with eight opponents within six strokes of him.

After defending champion Ahmed could only manage an even-par 72 in Saturday’s third round to move to nine-under 207 overall, Mohammad Zubair, who finished runner-up last time around, inched closer with a 71 that moved him to 208.

The biggest charge came from Matloob Ahmed, who shot a sensational seven-under 65 to move firmly into title contention at 210, alongside Mohammad Munir (73). Also closing in was Mohammad Ashfaq, who returned a 67 to sit a shot further adrift while Minhaj Maqsood Warraich (68) is at 212.

Pakistan number one Shabbir Iqbal (70), Moha­mmad Shahzad (71) and Hamza Amin (72) are all tied at 213 with the stage set for a gripping race to the finish over the last 18 holes.

Ahmed and Zubair had been level atop the leaderboard after the opening round but the holder had opened up a gap on his rival after the second round. However, despite firing three birdies on Saturday, a double bogey on the third hole of the blue course saw Ahmed’s lead cut to half.

It was Matloob, however, who stole the show with eight birdies while Ashfaq bagged six and they will look to push Ahmed close till the very end on Sunday.

Published in Dawn, February 9th, 2025