It will be a battle of nerves and application of golfing skills during the 18 holes combat between 26 able ones of Royal Palm against 26 front runners of Gymkhana Golf Club in the 5th Inter Club Team Match to be fought out on Sunday at the par 72 Royal Palm Golf Course.
A total of 26 singles matches are up for decision and 13 four ball contests. The total points at stake are 52 and the team which wins 26.5 or more will take home the glittering trophy currently held by Lahore Gymkhana who are defending champions. In the past four contests, the honors stand even with each team having won this prestigious team trophy twice. A look at the two teams composition makes the evaluation interesting and there is ample talent visible amongst the 52 players who form the two teams.
For Royal Palm, Sardar Murad, Tariq Misbah, Mohsin Zafar, Shoaib Shams, Wazir Ali, Jamil Khalid, Faisal Ali Malik, M. Rehman, Sherjeel Awan, Sohail Rana and Abbas Ali Khan appear as the battle hardened ones and they eagerly look forward to matching wits against Lahore Gymkhana’s Omer Azim, Shakeel Ahmed, Shafique Bhatti, Aftab Arshad, Salman Jehnagir, Ahsan Khawaja, Asad Khan, AVM Zakaullah, Mohsin Anwar, Amer Rafique Bhatti, Javed A Khan and Abdul Nafay.
Out of the double digit handicappers who are members of the Royal Palm Team, the names that look forceful ones are, Faisal Syed, Imran F. Mian, Imran Miraj, Asad Agha, M. Leghari and Fariq Bajwa. For Gymkhana, the double digit handicappers of significance are Khurshid Aziz, Col. Hammayun, Dr. Dildar Hussain, Danish Javed, Dr. Arshad Mehmood, Ahmed Saeed, Mehmood Janjua, Dr. Zafar Nasrullah, Dr. Khurram and Ch. Akhtar. Amongst the officials participating in this contest, Lt. Gen. M. Tariq, Captain of Royal Palm golf team and Ramzan Sheikh have played enough competitive golf to hope for an efficient handling of their match against the mighty Amer Mehmood (captain) and Khawaja Imran Zubair (convenor) of Lahore Gymkhana. The Royal Palm Golf Course, a course which has a century old history, as a flat golf course under the Railway umbrella but a splendid and spectacular one under the Royal Palm management, will be a great test of golfing skills and pars and birdies will not be easy to come by. Although, the competitors have prepared well for the occasion.
