Sindh Open: Iqbal retains title

Wins championship with 14-under-par 202

KARACHI: Islamabad Golf Club’s Shabbir Iqbal successfully defended his title at the 2016 Coca Cola Sindh Open Golf Championship with an aggregate score of 14-under-par 202 at the Arabian Sea Country Club yesterday.

The top-ranked Iqbal led the field of 45 professional golfers from the word go as he shot a 10-under-par 62 on Friday’s opening round, and followed it up with a five-under-par 67 in the second round. He endured a rough final round, shooting one-over-par 72 but his earlier exploits were enough to let him retain the title he won last year.

“In golf, you are on top of your game when your driving, chipping and putting work, and when they don’t, you struggle. And today, I struggled,” admitted Iqbal in his post-match comments. “But it ended well as I finished the event as the leader and that is purely because of my game in the first round.”



Regarding his 10-under-par opening round, he said that he has had such explosive rounds before although it was the first time he did so in Karachi.

Iqbal took home a cash prize of Rs332,100 along with the trophy, while runner-up Muhammad Munir, Shahid Javed Khan and Talat Ijaz shared the prize as they all tied on second place with a score of 208.



Meanwhile, Khyber-Pakhtunkwa’s Zeeshan Khan won the juniors title.

The winners of all the four categories in the competition also received four Yamaha motor bikes.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 22^nd,  2016.

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