LAHORE – The 5th Acquafina Royal Palm Golf Team Championship will commence at the exquisite and testing par 72 Royal Palm Golf Course on Friday (April 8) and the team event and individual gross competition will be contested over three rounds with final round to be played on Sunday.
Addressing a press conference here, Lt Gen (retd) Mohammad Tariq, Captain Golf, said that around a dozen teams have entered and a couple are expected more before the events starts. The press conference was also attended and addressed by Muhammad Nadeem Irshad, National Sales Manager, Riaz Bottlers (Pvt) Ltd, Pepsi Cola, the sole sponsor of the tournament, Khawaja Pervaiz Saeed – Director Media of the tournament, Mohammad Jameel Khalid, Director Golf, Omer Mir, Acting General Manager Royal Palm Golf and Country Club.
On this occasion Lt. Gen (retd) Muhammed Tariq also stated that besides golf, Royal Palm continues to provide excellent sporting facilities like tennis, squash, swimming, gymnasium, football, cricket and jogging and also most palatable cuisine to facilitate the members and the corporate world and stands committed to sporting excellence, providing ample opportunities to the talented ones to enhance their skills and turn out to be performers at the national and international level. He also spoke about the history of the tournament which has been a part of the golf calendar since late seventies.
Regarding the competition details, Col (retd) Jameel Khalid, Director Golf stated that golf clubs from around Pakistan are eligible to send two teams , consisting of four players each. In this regard, two teams have been fielded by the major Clubs like Lahore Gymkhana, Lahore Garrison Golf and Country Club, Rawalpindi Golf Club, Islamabad Golf Club, PAF Peshawar Golf Club, Gujranwala Golf & Country Club, Karachi Golf Club and the host Royal Palm Golf and Country Club. The other golf clubs like Multan and Peshawar have sent a team each. Islamabad Club are the defending champion and seek this honor, once again. Their team is represented by Taimur Hasan, a seasoned golfer with tremendous golfing skills and a lot of titles to his name, alongwith Captain (PN) Ansar, Tariq Mehmood and Talha Sajjad. Challenging them will be teams from Lahore Gymkhana, Gujranwala, Karachi and the host team, Royal Palm.
As for the individual competitions, the gross event will provide intense battles especially with players like Sardar Murad(Gym), Shoaib Bokhari (RP), Mohsin Zafar (RP), Col Asif Mehdi, Sohail Rana, Amir Mehmood (Gym), Muhammad Rehman (RP) , Asad IA Khan (Karachi), Mehmood Aziz (Peshawar), Zulfiqar Ali(Multan) andTaimur Hassan in the run besides many talented hopefuls. Kh Pervaiz the media director of the tournament stated that in the contest for top positions in the two rounds, 36 holes Challenge Shield based on net scores, youngsters like Mahad Zafar, Wazir Ali and Sameer Iftikhar will be under scrutiny as much is expected from them.
Ladies section contenders reflect an interesting mix of experience and teen agers and besides Tahira Nazir, Sameea Javed Ali and Ghazala, the little one Maryama Khan is expected to produce fireworks.
On the course, Col (retd) Jameel Khalid said that the Royal Palm Golf Course has a yardage of 6820, the first nine holes are 3400 yards and the back nine are 3420 yards.
This course has four Par 5’s, 10 Par 4s and four Par 3s. It has water hazards on holes 1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17and 18 poses an imposing challenge. The bunkers 74 helps to test the accuracy and skills of the competitors. The Greens are in good shape, rolling true and at medium-fast pace. They offer the player a chance for good scoring due to the holding qualities and the attractive speed. It will be important for the players to hit the right areas on the greens to avoid the speedy down hill putts due to the firm but fair pin placements.
The Fairways are in immaculate condition with the ball sitting up nicely and welcoming a cleanly struck fairway shot. The ball is not running as far as usual due to the damp atmosphere so the golf course will be playing a little longer than the yardage suggests. The Rough is set at a medium height. Missing the fairways from the tee will make approach shots difficult to control and will also make the longer holes difficult to reach in regulation play.
All in all the golf course has improved its image tremendously and all golfers of significance love to play here and it is now regarded as one of the good ones in the region.
“This event is endorsed by Acquafina who are already big supporters of sports in the country,” said Muhammed Nadeem Irshad, National Sales Manager of Pepsi.
