The country’s oldest golf tournament, the Amateur Team Trophy and Challenge Shield will tee off on Friday (March 16-18) here at the exotic course of Royal Palm Country Club under the sponsorship banner of Aquafina and Pepsi.
It would be the sixth Team Trophy to be staged at the Royal Palm whch would also be celebrating its centennial year of the course. This Pakistan Railways Golf Club was established in 1912 and was later taken over by Royal Palm in early 90s, completed his hundred years and the general manager of the club. Umer Mir also announced plans to hold a special function to celebrate the day.
Islamabad will be sending its two team to defend the Aquafina 6th Royal Golf Team Championship (endorsed by Pepsi) title last staged at the same venue in 2006, informed Lt Gen (r) Mohammed Tariq, Captain of the Royal Palm Golf Club.
Apart from Omer Mir, Col (r) Jameel Khalid, Director Golf and Khawaja Pervaiz Saeed, Director Media of the tournament were also present in the a press conference.
Lt Gen Tariq complimented Pepsi Cola for extending sponsorship support as without this, sports promotion would become extremely difficult. Col (r) Jameel said that a total of 147 golf players will be competing for honors in the individual category and in the team event teams from all over the country are vying for the prestigious team trophy. He also said that defending champion team from Islamabad Golf Club is represented and the challenge is expected to come from Karachi Club Team, DHA Karachi Club Team, Peshawar Club Team, Lahore Gymkhana and a strong Royal Palm team. Other teams in line are Gujranwala Golf Club, Rawalpindi Club and Garrison Golf Club. Talking of the playing arena, Col Jameel said that Royal Palm Golf and Country Club Golf Course is acknowledged as an arena of national standing. Admirably splendid in appearance, this Par 72, 18 holes golf course also has some other significant features which need to be highlighted.
Spelling out more details he said that this tournament has been an annual event of the golf calendar but was abandoned in 2000. Royal Palm Golf & Country Club re-introduced the event in 2006 based on its unique format where club teams get an opportunity to compete against each other in an effort to bring honours to their parent Club.
In this championship the events at stake are: Royal Palm Team Trophy to be contested over three days and 54 holes from March 16 to 18; Net Challenge Shield for individuals, to be contested over two days and 36 holes on March 16 and 17; Gross Cup for individuals, to be contested over three days and 54 holes from March 16 to 18; Ladies Cup to be contested over 18 holes on March 18.
Kh Pervaiz said that in the gross cup the previous winner, Taimur Hasan Amin is also competing and will be looking forward to duplicating his achievement. Competition in this category will emerge from the players of ability like Abdul Zahoor & Ashiq Hussain of Multan Golf Club, Ghazanfar Mehmood, Khalid Mehmood, Idrees Nisar Tinkoo of Rawalpindi, Dr Aimal Zaman, Maj Khushal Khan Khattak (Peshawar Golf Club) Imran Ahmed, Mohsin Anwar (Gymkhana), Waseem Rana Zohaib Asif (DHA Karachi) and Sardar Murad, Shoaib Bokhari, Omer Salamat and M. Rehman of Royal Palm.
In the Challenge Shield, players with handicap of 12 and below are eligible. The shield will be contested on the first two days of the tournament.
Based on handicap scores, a wide range of players will be in contention for this title. The last years winner, Saleem Raza a handicapped golfer from Gujranwala Golf Club will be having an eye on back to back victories in the Challenge Shield event.
In the ladies competition, Miss Ghazala Yasmin of Garrison, Lahore will be defending her tile whereas others like Mrs Tahira Nazir (Rawalpindi) Mrs Asma Shami (Garrison), Tahmina Rashid (GYM), Mrs Samia Javed Ali, Nighat Akram, Maryama Khan (Gymkhana) and Ami Quin (Islamabad), are all set to snatch the title from her.
