LAHORE – The Islamabad ‘A’ team led significantly at the conclusion of the first of the three rounds of the 5th Aquafina Royal Palm National Golf Tournament at the par 72 Royal Palm Golf Course.
Islamabad A, comprising Taimur Hassan, Tariq Mehmood and Umair Salim, showed their aggressive intent by managing to get a hold on the frontrunner position with an impressive team score of 229, made possible after some authoritative play by Taimur Hassan(gross 73) and Tariq Mehmood (gross 75) and a modest contribution of 81 by Umair Saleem.
Another team that look extremely good are the Royal Palm ‘A’ team, who aggregated a team score of 231, after a decent 75 gross from Muhammed Rehman, a gross 77 by Omer Salamt and Shoaib Bokhari’s 79. Sharing the second slot with Royal Palm ‘A’ with a score of 231 are Gujranwala Club, who surprised everyone with a tremendous show of accurate hitting and perfect play on the greens.
In the individual gross competition, Nadeem Abbas from Sargodah showed immense talent and played inspired golf for a par round of 72 to become listed as the leader in gross section. His birdies on holes 3, 9 and 17 reflected streaks of brilliance.
One stroke behind Nadeem are three contenders, Taimur Hassan (Islamabad), Raheel Ikram (Gujranwala) and Saleem Raza, also from Gujranwala. The most experienced player of the three is Taimur Hassan, who looks in great trim and showed flashes of his old form with a round that had three birdies, eleven pars and four bogies.
