Pakistan’s World Cup hopes were shattered when Shabbir Iqbal and Mohammad Munir fired a disappointing final-round 73 to end joint seventh in the qualifying event.
Pakistan’s see-saw event, that saw them perform well on alternate days, saw them finish on 283, 12 points off the leaders New Zealand and Singapore that secured qualification together with Korea on the final day.
The Kiwi pairing of Michael Hendry and Gareth Paddison, who capped a perfect day by holing out from a greenside bunker to birdie the last to tie Singapore’s 13-under-par total of 271, beamed with pride at the prospect of joining the world’s top golfers at the 28-nation biennial event.
“We worked really hard on our games, it is great to represent our country in the World Cup and hopefully go on to make the country proud,” said Hendry.
Opponents Lam Chih-Bing and Mardan Mamat of Singapore shot 72 on the last day, but conceded to New Zealand without playing any extra holes as both had qualified for the event proper at Hainan Island in China from November 24.
Final totals
271 - New Zealand, Singapore
275 - Korea
278 - Philippines, Malaysia, India
283 - Myanmar, Pakistan,
Published in The Express Tribune, August 7th, 2011.
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