KARACHI: There was a space of 30 minutes between the tee times of overnight leader Waheed Baloch and defending champion Shabbir Iqbal in the second round of the Pakistan Open Golf Championship on Friday.

On a bright and sunny day at the Karachi Golf Course, it was during that time that Waheed seemed to be racing clear of Shabbir atop the leaderboard.

Two weeks ago, a tense two-hole playoff had gone in favour of Waheed who denied Shabbir the chance of making back-to-back titles at the same course during the Rashid D. Habib Memorial National Professional Golf Tournament.

Now, at the country’s most lucrative tournament, he was looking to create daylight between himself and Shabbir having started the round a stroke in front.

The first five holes saw him fire four birdies despite a bogey on the second. But that was as good as it got for Waheed.

Successive bogeys on the 11th and 12th holes meant the back nine performance wouldn’t match the front nine.

He did, however, get a birdie on the 16th to finish on two-under 69 for a seven-under 135 overall, increasing his lead by a stroke to two over Shabbir (70) with two rounds to play.

Looking to close in on Waheed, Shabbir — fresh from a successful title defence at last week’s Sindh Open — struck birdies on the first and third holes but they were offset by consecutive bogeys.

Another two birdies followed for Shabbir on the back nine, ensuring he didn’t fall further behind Waheed and stayed a stroke ahead of Ahmed Baig (69) and Ansar Mehmood (71).

Playing in the same flight as Shabbir, Ahmed fired six birdies but his card was dented by a double bogey on the 13th.

Usman Ali produced the day’s best performance of four-under 67 to take himself to 139 alongside Taimoor Khan (70).

Latif Rafiq (70) is a further stroke adrift and one ahead of a group of four that comprises Matloob Ahmed (69), Mohammad Alam (71), Hamza Amin (73) and Sajjad Khan (74).

With 11 amateur players playing alongside the professionals, Umer Khokar’s played a standout round of 68 among them.

However, he remains two shots adrift of national champion Omar Khalid (74) in that category overall.

Published in Dawn, January 29th, 2022