Thangaraja wins men’s title, Ghazala ladies crown

N. Thangaraja of Sri Lanka cruised to a stylish four stroke victory in the 51st National Golf Championship at the par 72 Royal Palm Golf and Country Club Golf Course yesterday. By virtue of this performance he captures the Pakistan National Golf Title 2012, making his trip to Pakistan a memorable one. And in the Womens Section Ghazala Yasmin of Garrison Golf Club, Lahore retains her title and creates history by winning the Ladies Title, three times in a row, a great achievement inddeed.
Thangaraja of Sri Lanka, after his triumph in India three weeks back, further underlined his champion like credentials by his powerful game, demonstrating his talent strongly in this championship too and all through the four days of chilling competition , every shot of his reflected excellence and though a couple of shots did go astray, he overcame the stroke losses with solid play on the other holes and thereby kept his winning ways on the right track. . All in all he played the four rounds in style and his aggregate of 287, one under par was way better than the runner up, Dulal Hossain of Bangla Desh and the third position winner Wasim Rana of Pakistan. And very rightly Thangaraja said, “Its been very satisfying, I’ve been pretty consistent off the tee and my putter has not been a distraction and in combination with the excellent Royal Palm Golf Course conditions I have been able to do well”. As for Dullal Hossain, of Bangla Desh he carded a battling 73 on the final day, for a second place in the national championship, upsetting Wasim Rana’s charge who could ultimately succeed in securing the third prize. Dollal too was extremely impressed with the golf course and local hospitality and had a great wish to be here again.
The top seven
N. Thangaraja (Sri Lanka) 74+68+73+72=287
Dulal Hossain (Bangladesh) 71+71+76+73=291
Wasim Rana (Pakistan) 73+71+73+77=294
Sajib Ali (Bangladesh) 75+72+77+71=295
Ali Hai (Pakistan) 70+76+76+74=296
M. Rehman (Pakistan) 72+77+74+77=300
Ashiq Hussain (Pakistan) 71+73+75+81=300
In the ladies contest the lady of the championship turned out to be Ghazala Yasmin of Garrison Golf club, Lahore who again won this champioship with some authentic accuracy oriented golf performance. She has also created history by winning the title for three consecutive years, she won it in 2010, 2011 and now 2012 with three rounds scores of 85, 83 and 88 and an aggregate score of 256. Out of the upcoming teen agers, Kashifa Zafar and Nushmiya Sukhera made their presence felt. Kashfa Zafar came second and Nushmiya Sukera came third in gross section. In the ladies net section the winners are Kashfa Zafar(first), Nushmiya Sukhera(second) and Tehmina Rashid, a former national champion won the third net. Earlier the Punjab Team won the the Inter asoociation team title, Pakistan won the J. R. Jaywardene Trophy and Sri Lanka won the International Team Match.
At the conclusion of the national event: Hina Rabbani Khar, Foreign Minister awarded prizes to the winners in a ceremony attended by foreign teams, golfers, Ramzan Sheikh, Pervez Qureshi, Maj Gen(r)Tariq Saleem of PGF, Lt Gen(r)Tariq, Lt Gen(r)Khalid Maqbool and a large number of members. On this occasion Taimur Hassan, Honorary Secretary of PGF suggested that to make Pakistan a more welcome place a golf championship should be held and top sportsmen of international prominence who also play golf should be invited to take part in a charity or social golf event and all influential sportsmen can help the National efforts to make the idea practical. In her reply, Hina Rabbani Khar accepted the proposal and agreed to form a body for this purpose.