Shabbir Iqbal wins Frontier Open Golf title

PESHAWAR: Shabbir Iqbal clinched the trophy of the 18th Bank Alfalah Frontier Open Golf Championship, played here at the 6666-yard PAF Golf Course on Sunday. Shabbir added 70, 2 under to his overnight 133 on the last day to make 13 under par 203 over 54 holes. He carded 66+67+70 as he scored three birdies and two bogies. The pin placing was hard enough as it was at the edge of the greens but the professionals showed continuity to their round except Talib Hussain of POF, who scored 3 birdies, double bogies at 10, par-4 and 12, par 5 besides missing a stroke on the 6th occasion. He slipped badly from second position to the eighth but it was not exceptional in golf as the game is known for such happenings. One good stroke could enable a golfer to reach at top but a bad shot certainly drops another from top to bottom, Shabbir said. “Staying on the top is perhaps the most difficult of all,” he added. Shahid Javed Khan of Royal Palm took second position with his three day score 210, six under par. Shahid carded 69+70+71. In his last day round of 71, Shahid carded 34, two under at front nine and 37, one over at back nine with three birdies and two bogeys. Nawab Afridi with his total score 73+69+70=212, four under par by making three birdies and a bogey. Ansar Mahmood of Navy and Matloob Ahmad shared fourth position with their score of 213, three under par, M Arif and Qamar shared fifth place with their score 214, two under, M Javed, Imdad Hussain, M Nazir, Naseer Khan scored 216, par each, and M Munir, M Tahir and Javed Inayat (217) shared seventh place. In the Amateur 0-12 Tariq Mahmood with his gross score 218, Safdar Khan (221) and Naeem Ahmad (232) got first, second and third positions. In Net Inayatullah, Khurram Shah and Major Shoaib got the positions. In the 13-18, gross Rahim Bali, Brig Muzaffar Ali Khan and Sajid Raza got first, second and third position respectively while in Net Col Jehanzeb, Major Shehryar and Brig A Q Khattak got positions. In Senior Amateurs Abdul Haq, Idrees Khan and Col Fassih while in the Net Jamal-ul-Hasnain, Bakhtiar Gul and Maj Mumtaz got positions. In the Senior Pros Hasan Akbar of LG, M Rafique of Rawalpindi and Manzoor of Police got positions. In the Boys, the promising Mubariz Ahmed of Islamabad, Aamir Naseer and Hamza got first, second and third prize. In the Boys U-18 Taimur Naseer and Mustafa got first and second positions while in the Ladies Dr Soni Wali and Tahira Nazir got winners and runners-up trophy.