Pakistan slip to 7th in World Cup qualifier

Shabbir-Munir drop a place at Asian Qualifying golf event.

KARACHI:

Pakistan’s top golf duo of Shabbir Iqbal and Mohammad Munir fell to seventh after the second round at the World Cup Asian Qualifying that saw Singapore maintaining their top position in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia.

The pair, after an impressive 68 in the first round, finished the second round on 76 to sit seventh.

Pakistan, five shots behind Singapore after the opening round, now trail the leaders by 11 points and despite Singapore staying top, the proceedings went to Indian golfers Gaganjeet Bhullar and Anirban Lahiri who finished on 69 to jump three places for a second spot.

“Today was a good day,” said Lahiri. “We worked hard and deserved to play a better round.”

Korea’s Kim Hyung-Sung and Park Sung-Joon also ended on 69 (139) to jump from seventh to third and were followed by Sri Lanka and New Zealand on the leader board.

Also ahead of Pakistan are Malaysia and Philippines which occupy fifth and sixth positions with a total of 141 and 143 respectively after the second day of qualifying for the World Cup.

Chinese Taipei, which occupied joint sixth with Pakistan after the opening day, slipped to eighth position and were followed by Indonesia with 148 points, Myanmar were comfortably resting  at 150, Hong Kong  at 151 points and Ghana at 153 points.

A total of 16 teams are competing in the event to qualify for the Mission Hills World Cup in China with just the top three able to compete in the event that takes place in November.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 5^th, 2011.