KARACHI: By the end of it all, and despite a near-perfect effort from Mohammad Zubair, there was no stopping Ahmed Baig from becoming a repeat winner at the Rashid D. Habib Open Golf Championship.

In a tournament he’d led from the start, Ahmed had almost let it slip away from his grasp. A stroke in front at the start of Sunday’s final round, the defending champion found himself two behind with three holes to play.

Zubair, the runner-up last year to Ahmed, had set up a thrilling climax at the Karachi Golf Course. It was now a question of who would blink.

It was then that Ahmed conjured a remarkable turnaround, and Zubair wilted.

Ahmed’s seventh birdie of the day saw him move into a tie for the lead as Zubair bogeyed.

Under pressure, Zubair bogeyed again on the penultimate hole, giving Ahmed the lead he’d beg­un with at the start of the day. This time, Ahmed made sure he wasn’t going to let go of the advantage.

An eighth birdie capped a stunning four-under 66; Ahmed’s double bogey on the par-4 sixth hole seemed a distant memory as he finished on 15-under 273 for a two-shot victory.

Zubair, who had seven birdies and was going bogey-free until the 16th hole, finished with 67 after his late meltdown for a total of 275.

Mohammad Munir (69) ended in third place, six off Ahmed, while Talat Ijaz, who fired an eagle in his 65, finished fourth on 281, one ahead of Matloob Ahmed (72). Shabbir Iqbal, the Pakistan number one, and Hamza Amin both carded 70 to end the tournament on 283.

In other categories, Mohammad Tariq took the senior professionals’ crown with a one-shot victory over Aurangzeb Khan. The margin of victory was the same in the junior professionals’ contest, with Syed Ali Noshairwan Naqvi edging Rehan Babar.

Published in Dawn, February 10th, 2025