KARACHI, Feb 16: Sixth seed Mohammad Munir tightened the noose around second seeded Mutloob Ahmad when he slashed the leader’s lead to just one stroke to set up a thrilling finale to the Nike-Standard Chartered 34th Open Golf Championship of Pakistan at the Arabian Sea Country Club.
Munir shot a two-under 70 for an aggregate of four-under 212 after 54 holes following Mutloob’s 72 that gave him an aggregate of five-under 211 Saturday.
Shafiq Masih was two strokes behind the leader after a third successive one-under 71 for three-under 213. Defending champion Taimur Hussain also carded 71 to share fourth place with qualifier Shakeel Rehmati who played an error-free round of 69.
Taimur must be cursing his luck when he missed, at least, three two-footers to let Mutloob and Munir off the hook.
Mohammad Irfan, country’s 10th ranked golfer, was the only notable player to miss the cut after finishing at a disappointing 34th place at 16-over 232. The top 30 after third round will appear for the remaining 18 holes Sunday.
Wind factor and tough pin placements left the contenders to play with a much cautious approach. It were around the greens and on the greens on which the champions defensive approach was exposed. Many putts should have been made but the ball either lipped the hole or stayed at the edge, costing them valuable strokes.
Mutloob went into his shell in the first four holes which saw him bogey the par-three second before birdieing the easiest 512- yard par-five fourth. After seven successive pars, Mutloob birdied par-three 12th but successive bogeys on the 13th and 14th left him one-over.
Throwing caution to the wind on the second most difficult 389- yard par-four 18th, an excellent tee-shot led him to a few of yards from the pin. Mutloob made no mistake and found the centre of the hole to finish even. Besides Mutloob, only three others earned strokes on the treacherous 18th.
Mohammad Munir began with three straight pars before surrendering stroke on the 512-yard par-four fourth. He, however, recovered to birdie two of the next three holes for front-nine 34.
On the uneventful back-nine, Munir bogeyed the par-four 10th but reclaimed the stroke on the par-five 11th.
Qualifier Shafiq Masih had a horrendous back-nine on which he had bogeys on the 12th, 13th and 18th against his birdies on the 14th and 16th. On the front-nine, he carded 34 following his birdies on the fifth, seventh and ninth. He dropped a shot on the sixth.
Taimur, country’s only golfer who has won a title on the APGA circuit and shot a poor four-over on the first day, looked like a man on the mission on the front-nine. But after bogeying the 11th and 13th, he preferred to play his last five holes safe to keep himself with a chance for the final kill.
Taimur bad birdies on the first, sixth, seventh and ninth whereas he surrendered strokes on the 432-yard par-four third and 431-yard par-four eighth.
Another qualifier Shakeel Rehmati earned the distinction of becoming the first golfer of the ongoing event to play a bogey- free round of 69. He birdied the fourth, a difficult ninth and the most difficult 441-yard par-four 15th.
Asghar Ali was the other golfer who birdied the 15th who carded one-over 73 for an aggregate of seven-over 221. He was tied at eighth place 11th ranked Ghulam Nabi.
Vaqas Ahmed played par round for three round aggregate of three under-par 213 to lead Ghazanfar Mahmood by three strokes in the amateurs.
Scores after third round:
211 - Mutloob Ahmad 68 71 72
212 - Mohammad Munir 71 71 70
213 - Shafiq Masih 71 71 71
214 - Taimur Hussain 76 67 71, Shakeel Rehmati 73 72 69
218 - Mohammad Shabbir Iqbal 77 69 72
220 - Amjad Yousuf 70 74 76
221 - Mohammad Tahir Nasim 73 73 75
223 - Asghar Ali 74 76 73, Ghulam Nabi 76 73 72
225 - Abbas Ali 71 76 78, Mohammad Sajid 76 73 76, Nisar Hussain 78 72 75, Imdad Hussain 79 72 74
226 - Talib Hussain 75 75 76, Javed Inayat 73 78 75, Karam Hussain 80 71 75, Mahmood Kiani 81 70 75, Sajjad Khan 79 74 73, Shahid Haleem 76 78 72
227 - Manzoor Ahmad 74 75 78, Waheed Baloch 74 75 78, Iqbal Bashir 77 75 75, Mohammad Akram 76 77 74
228 - Mohammad Tariq 77 75 76, Ahmad Zahir 75 75 79, Arshad Ali 74 78 77, Abdul Hameed 76 77 76, Mohammad Siddique 77 76 76
229 - Akhtar Ali 79 77 73
230 - Mohammad Arif 77 79 74.