KARACHI: Despite playing two over par 74 in the second round, country’s ace golfer Shabbir Iqbal defied light rain in the morning to maintain his lead in the UBL ninth Independence Day Cup Open Golf Championship at the Defence Authority Country and Golf Club (DAC&GC) on Saturday.

Shabbir, who was tied at the top with Ansar Mahmood at seven under 65 the other day, has seized a two shot lead over M. Munir who carded four under 68. His first round score was one over 73.

Defending champion Shabbir started the day by bogeying the first hole and was unfortunate to culminate the second round in similar fashion at the 18th hole.

His overnight co leader Mahmood also turned out to be off the mark carding seven over79 to slid at the fifth position at par 144, five shots off the pace.

Ghazanfar Mahmood, meanwhile, leads the pack in the amateurs with two round aggregate of six over 150. He had a poor round of 77, five over, on the penultimate day.

Two shots away at eight over 152 is DHA’s Zohaib Asif who carded 78 in the second round.

Leader board after second round:

Pros:

139 — Shabbir Iqbal (Islamabad) 65, 74

141 — M. Munir (Islamabad) 73, 68

142 — Matloob Ahmed (Garrison) 70, 72

143 — Shahbaz Masih (KGC) 71, 72

144 — Ansar Mahmood (Islamabad) 65, 79

Amateurs:

150 — Ghazanfar Mahmood (Bahria Golf Club) 73, 77

152 — Zohaib Asif (DHA) 74, 78.

Published in Dawn, August 13th, 2017