July 19, 2008	Saturday	Rajab 15, 1429

KARACHI, July 18: Leading golfer Shabbir Iqbal of Islamabad Golf Club lived up to his top billing when he recaptured the Open title coasting to five strokes victory in the 10th Sindh Open golf championship at Arabian Sea Country Club on Friday.

Shabbir, who surged to the top slot on the penultimate day, played last round of one under par 71 in the 54-hole competition to end with ten under par 206.

Winner of the fourth edition, Shabbir had to be content with fourth slot last year.

Shabbir, who recently won prestigious CNS Open, was in contention for the crown right from the first round when he carded three under par 69, two strokes behind the opening day’s leader Sajjad Khan. He played second round of six under par 66 to jump to the top of the leader board and maintained his ascendancy in the end. He started the last round with a bogey and fired three birdies on hole 4, 11 and 16.

Matloob Ahmed of Gymkhana and Mohammed Muneer of Cres Bank finished joint runners-up with five under par 211. The former played the final round of par 72 while the latter scored two under par 70. Matloob registered three bogeys and a double bogey besides five birdies on hole 1, 4, 5, 7 and 11. On the other hand, Muneer had to his credit three birdies in addition to a bogey.

The third position was jointly shared by Talib Hussain of Police and Javed Inayat of the Karachi Golf Club with one over par 217. Defending champion Amjad Yousuf of KGC ended up with three over par 219 after playing rounds of 73, 76 and 70.

Overnight leader Mohammad Safdar of Gujranwala claimed the amateur title for an aggregate of seven over par 223.

Holder Mohammad Ali Hai of the KGC who had a poor opening round of eight over par 80 recovered by playing next two rounds of par 72 to finish runner up.

Ali Sher of SGA, winner of the inaugural Sindh Governor Golf Cup last year, finished fifth with a score of 232.

Secretary of the SGA, Asad I. A. Khan, won the best gross award in 6-12 handicap category in amateurs with the scores of 81, 84, 82 followed by Lt. Cdr. Shazli Azher who shot 76, 86, 85.

The net prize went to Bassam Shazli while Syed Navaid Ali finished runner-up.

Aadil Jahangir clinched the opening day’s best round prize with 73 gross while the second and third day’s prizes went to Mohammad Ali Hai (72) and Sajid Khan (75) respectively.

Shabbir received a purse of Rs112,000 and winners trophy while Matloob and Muneer pocketed Rs57,800 apiece in addition to the trophies from the chief guest Mr. Mueen Aftab Sheikh, Chairman, Pakistan Steel.

Top finishers (Professionals):

206 - M. Shabbir Iqbal (Islamabad) 69, 66, 71.

211 - Matloob Ahmed (Gymkhana) 70, 69, 72; Mohammad Muneer (Cres Bank) 72, 69, 70.

217 - Talib Hussain (Police) 69, 74, 74; Javed Inayat (KGC) 73, 70, 74. 218 - Shahid Javed Khan (Royal Palm Club) 72, 70, 76; Imdad Hussain (Gymkhana) 70, 73, 75; M. Irfan (Rawalpindi) 70, 74, 74; Ansar Mahmood (Islamabad) 75, 70, 73.

219 - Amjad Yousuf (KGC) 73, 76, 70.

220 - Sajjad Khan (Islamabad) 67, 74, 79; M. Siddique (Faisalabad) 75, 73, 72. Top finishers (Amateur):

223 - M. Safdar (Gujranwala) 74, 73, 76.

224 - Mohammad Ali Hai (KGC) 80, 72, 72.

225 - Sajid Khan (ASCC) 73, 77, 75.

229 - Aadil Jahangir (Gymkhana) 73, 77, 79; Abrar Ahmed (SGA) 78, 75, 76. 232 - Ali Sher (SGA) 79, 75, 78.