KARACHI, Feb 14: Mutloob Ahmad carded four-under 68 to grab the lead on the opening day of the 34th Nike-Standard Chartered Pakistan Open as only five golfers managed to break par at the Arabian Sea Country Club Thursday.
Qualifier Amjad Yousuf had the sole second place possession two strokes behind the leader while Abbas Ali, Mohammad Munir and Shafiq Masih were a further stroke adrift.
Defending champion Taimur Hussain, who had to face the anomaly of coming through the qualifying round, had a dismal first round of four-over 76 to share 17th place with Shahid Haleem, Mohammad Sajid, Mohammad Akram and Abdul Hameed.
Pakistan’s top golfer Mohammad Shabbir Iqbal had an even more horrifying session when he carded five-over 77 to finish at a joint 22nd place with seven others. Mahmood Kiyani, ranked 15th, was reeling at joint 50th place after a poor round of nine- over 81.
Second ranked Mutloob had seven birdies and two bogeys. He dropped a stroke on the 185-yard par-three second before earning strokes on par-five fourth, par-four sixth, par-three seventh and par-four eighth.
Mutloob began the back-nine by surrendering a stroke on the 379-yard par-four but immediately gain the stroke on 531-yard par-five 11th. After conceding a stroke on the 430-yard par-four 12th, he birdied the par-four 15th and par-three 17th to finish a satisfying first day’s outing.
Amjad Yousuf had five birdies but bogeyed the par-four ninth and par-four 15th.
Fourth ranked Abbas Ali earned strokes on the second, fourth, 11th and 18th but bogeyed the third, 13th and 17th. Sixth seed Mohammad Munir birdied the second, fourth, 11th but dropped strokes on seventh and 16th. Qualifier Shafiq Masih began by dropping a stroke on the par-four first but birdied the fourth and seventh.
Ghazanfar Mahmood led the amateur’s when he played an even round, helped by three birdies and as many bogeys. He is followed by Vaqas Ahmad (73).
Collated first round scores:
68 - Mutloob Ahmad
70 - Amjad Yousuf
71 - Abbas Ali, Mohammad Munir, Shafiq Masih
73 - Mohammad Tahir Nasim, Shakeel Rehmati, Javed Inayat
74 - Maqbool Ahmad, Manzoor Ahmad, Asghar Ali, Waheed Baloch, Arshad Ali
75 - Talib Husain, Ahmad Zahir, Abdul Jabbar
76 - Shahid Haleem, Mohammad Sajid, Mohammad Akram, Taimur Hussain, Abdul Hameed
77 - Anwar Ali, Mohammad Abbas, Mohammad Shabbir Iqbal, Mohammad Siddique, Mohammad Irfan, Mohammad Tariq Raz, Iqbal Bashir, Mohammad Arif
78 - Nisar Husain, Yunus Afridi, Ghulam Nabi, Mumtaz Abbas, Pervez Khan, Nazir Khan, Naseer Khan
79 - Akhtar Ali, Ijaz Gul, Sajjad Khan, Noor Bukhs, Saleem Inayat, Imdad Hussain, Yasyaa Habib, Ghulam Hussain.
80 - Ahmad Saeed, Ghulam R.Baloch, Ahmad Saeed, Shahid Nawaz, Afsar Ali, Karam Hussain.