The second edition of the 2nd Chief of Naval Staff Amateur Golf Championship will be teed off here tomorrow, Thursday at par-72 Royal Palm Golf and Country Club Golf Course, a galaxy of golfers taking part in the prestigious event.
This was stated by Commodore Akbar Naqi,Station Commander,Pakistan Navy,Lahore and Chief Organiser of the event on Wednesday at a news conference at the Royal Palm Golf Club.Also presen were Col (r) Jameel Khalid,Tournament Director and Khawaja Pervaiz Saeed,Media Director.
Akbar Naqi said that Pakistan Navy alongwith co sponsors like Zong,Coke is the sponsor of three day event. “Navy is playing an active in the development of sports and it is holding golfing events on regular basis,” he said.
He also said that The Chief of Naval Staff, Admiral M. Asif Sandila, is a source of encouragement and inspiration and his endorsement of this championship makes it possible to make it an event of significance and immense importance on the national amateur golf circuit.
He further added that while Pakistan Navy sportsmen are high achievers in many sports, it certainly is proud of its golfers Tariq Mehmood and Mohammad Shabbir Iqbal who are top performers in whichever golf championship they participate. In particular it would be appropriate to state that in professional golf circuit of Pakistan,Shabbir is regarded as an icon. Col (r) Jameel said for the amateur golfers in the Men’s category, eligibility criteria for is that only players with a handicap of twelve and below can participate and because of this feature one can foresee quality golf on all three days of the national event. He also said that the trend of quality golf was set as a bench mark in the 1st Chief of Naval Staff Golf Championship when Mohammad . Rehman of Royal Palm emerged as the first title holder.
It was also spelled out that In this Championship, by virtue of the 12 handicap restriction, only the accomplished golf players are eligible to participate and the notable golfers taking part are Mohammad Rehman and Mohsin Zafar (Royal Palm), Tariq Mahmood (Pakistan Navy), Ghazanfar Mehmood, Khalid Mehmood and Idrees Nisar Tinkoo(Rawalpindi), Sajid Khan (Arabian Sea), Zulfiqar Ali and Ashiq Hussain (Multan, Imran Ahmed, Murad A. Khan and Salman Jehangir (Lahore Gymkhana).
Khawaja Pervaiz highlighted that from amongst the other known players, those who have practiced hard and look capable of causing a substantial dent in the chances of the seasoned ones are Mohsin Anwar, Omer Azim, Shafique Bhatti, Haider Attiq and Omer Khokhar and Shoaeb Shams.
He further said that ample efforts have been put in by the organizing team at Royal Palm to prepare a challenging course. The event to be contested are ,Seniors Event, for participants in the age bracket 55 years and above, Ladies Eventand Juniors Event.
The main event for amateurs will be contested over three rounds with 18 holes to be played each day making it a total of 54 holes. Winner in this category will be awarded the title and the trophy.
The seniors will compete over a total of 18 holes with 9 holes. Javed Khan is the defending champion.Ladies contest will be over 18 holes and criteria for handicap is 30 and below. Ghazala Yassmin is last year’s championship..Junior’s competition will also be over 18 holes and handicap criteria is 24 and below. Nadeem Aslam won last year.
