In the 18 holes IBM Classic Invitational Golf Tournament at the Royal Palm Golf Course, a total of 72 competing amateurs registered for a try at the glittering prizes offered by the sponsor.
And on a slightly less hot day, many of the aspirants were just not gallant enough and due to vulnerability on the greens, found their chances of victory fading away with each poor putt.
The resolute one, however, turned out to be Omer Salamat, a superb athlete and a golfer of substance of the host club, who played admirably, with approach shots looking vastly superior to other competitors and on at least six holes he holed out with deadly precision. During the round he had an eagle on the 14th holes, three birdies and an aggregate gross round score of one over par 73, thereby emerging as the holder of the IBM Trophy. Another golfer with a winning touch was Sohail Rana who showed fine match playing qualities to finish the front nine in a par score of 36 and the back nine in 39, the aggregate score of gross 75 fetching him the runners up slot.
In the competition for net honors in handicap category 0-14, the winner net was Ashfaq Lone with a score of net 69 followed by Haroon Arshed at net 70. Both these competitors showed ample resilience to come up with good rounds.
As for the other events the nearest to pin prize went to Hussain Hamid, the longest drive to Shahid Abbas Awan, and maximum birdies to Omer Salamat. In handicap category 15 and above the net winner was Faisal Sabir Raja followed by Sufi Haris, second. Kamran Nagi secured first gross and Dr. Nasrullah was second.
At the conclusion of the championship Adnan Shaikh of IBM awarded prizes to the performers.
