LAHORE, Nov 2: Little-known Shakeel Sayyaz from Islamabad with an excellent card of four-under-par-68 emerged as leader on the opening day of the Bank Alfalah Punjab Open Golf Championship in Gujranwala on Friday.
While around 92 professional golfers are featuring in the three-day contest offering a cash prize of Rs1.5 million, Shakeel caught the eyes of everyone with his excellence.
During the first round he played like a champion excelling in all departments. His tee shots were perfect and fairway shots as crisp as they can be and additionally the putter responded to his feel and strokes. The birdies were achieved on holes 4, 6, 10, 13 and 14 and regulation pars were managed on twelve holes. Only one blemish on the seventh hole resulted in a bogey.
“I felt wonderful playing today. No doubt my mother’s prayers were an inspiration and source of courage for me,” a delighted Shakeel remarked. “I have a big family to support and [to me] the livelihood factor is of immense importance. Hopefully I will continue to perform as a very good golfer.”
Meanwhile, contestants at this championship produced an impressive show as 17 of them came up with under-par rounds. Notable among them are Mohammad Nazir (Islamabad) 69, Mohammad Munir (Islamabad) 69, Talat Ijaz (Gymkhana) 69, Sunny Masih (Gymkhana) 70, Ansar Mahmood (Islamabad) 70 and Karrar Hussain Changezi (Quetta) 70.
Mohammad Munir — who recently participated in a hectic six-phase competition in the UAE — showed no signs of fatigue. Rather looking full of energy, Munir’s shot-making was masterly.
Others with under-par rounds were Javed Inayat, Amjad Yousuf (both from Karachi), Mohammad Tariq (Islamabad), Mohammad Sohail (Margalla), Mohammad Asif (Defence Raya), Khalid Khan (Peshawar) and Mohammad Javed, Latif Rafiq and Tahir Nasim (all three from Gymkhana).
Two established players — Matloob Ahmed and Shafiq Masih — looked a little modest simply because they did not play under par and just managed a score of par-72 which is by no means slanderous.
Senior professionals will tee off on Saturday and the prize money allocated for this category is Rs250,000.