KARACHI, Aug 3: Despite below-far performance Shabbir Iqbal hung on to maintain his lead in the 4th Sindh Cup golf championship at the Arabian Sea Country Club Saturday.
Shabbir carded a two-over 74 in the third round for a 10-under 206 for the tournament.
Mohammad Munir, who trailed Shabbir by four strokes after 36 holes, trimmed the lead to one stroke when he shot a one-under 71 for nine-under 207 for the competition.
Matloob Ahmad was another stroke behind at eight-under 208 after a three-under 69 while Mohammad Tariq was in sole possession of fourth place at seven-under 209 after a one-under 71 in the third round.
Shabbir, who played flawlessly in the first two rounds, struggled throughout the day. The holes he conquered so convincingly in the first 36 holes, looked strange to him as he struggled with his putts and drives. Most of the times, he was wayward as his tee shots found the rough or sand traps rather than the fairways.
Shabbir made the first turn at even-par when he birdied the par-four third but bogeyed the par-five seventh. He actually sunk on the back-nine despite making an excellent start by birdieing the par-four 10th.
Shabbir dropped three strokes on successive holes when he double bogeyed the par-four 15th and bogeyed the par-four 16th.
Munir also struggled to show his real prowess but still managed to break the par. He started by dropping a stroke on the second but recovered the stroke on the fourth before going two-under for front-nine with an eagle on the par-five seventh.
Munir began the back-nine with successive bogeys and made another bogey on the 15th but earned strokes on the 14th and par-three 17th.
Matloob maintained his consistency when he played the joint-lowest round of three-under 69 along with Mohammad Sajid. Matloob made five birdies and three bogeys — all on the back-nine.
In the amateurs, Shahid Javed Khan played an even par third round that was enough to give him a tournament score of one-under 215 and a one shot lead over Vaqas Ahmad. Vaqas, leader after first round, carded a one-over par.
There was a three-way tied for the third place between Taimur Hasan, Dr Aimal Zaman and Ali Hai who were at four-over 220.
SCORES AFTER THIRD ROUND:
206 - Shabbir Iqbal 66 66 74
207 - Mohammad Munir 68 68 71
208 - Matloob Ahmad 70 69 69
209 - Mohammad Tariq 73 65 71
211 - Abbas Ali 70 67 74
212 - Mohammad Sajid 73 70 69; Akhtar Ali 69 71 72; Ahmed Saeed 72 70 70.
213 - Sajjad Khan 67 72 74; Mohammad Tahir 70 66 77; Mohammad Saddiq 71 72 70; Mohammad Akram 73 70 70
215 - Waheed Baloch 69 70 76; Ansar Mehmood 71 70 74; Karam Hussain 69 64 72; Ghani Khan 72 72 71; Imdad Hussain 70 75 70
216 - Mohammad Javed 74 68 74; Ghulam Baloch 73 71 72.3