Matloob Ahmed wins Rs. 7.2 Million Rashid D. Habib Memorial National Professional Golf C’ship
The 8th Rashid D. Habib Memorial National Professional Golf Tournament came to a successful end with Matloob Ahmed winning by two strokes at Karachi Golf Club (KGC).
Matloob Ahmed once again proved himself as one of the most consistent professionals on the national tour as he claimed the title of this tournament as well.
Matloob keeping his two days lead took calculated risks in the final round, carding a 1-under-par 71 to win the lucrative title ahead of the duo of Pakistan#1 Shabbir Iqbal and Ansar Mehmood.
Going into the final round, Hamza Amin of Islamabad was just one shot off the pace but he failed to click and had to settle for the third place with a final round card of 75 which was only good enough for third place with a four-round aggregate of nine-under 279.
To which Hamza said,“In a way, you can call it a meltdown, I was playing well but I didn’t do well on the back nine and that proved to be my undoing.”
But then Matloob finished the four-day tournament in his favor with an aggregate of 274 (-14) and was awarded with the winner’s cheque of Rs. 630,329. While the defending champion Shabbir and Absar were the joint runners-ups with grand totals of 276 (-12) grabbing Rs. 324,651 worth of cash prize, each. Whereas the third spot winner was declared Islamabad's Hamza Amin who also got Rs. 202,380 as prize money.
Imdad Hussain took the first position in the Senior Professionals category with winner’s purse of Rs. 131,670 and the second position holder in the same category is Muhammad Akram who managed to take Rs. 82,294 cash prize home while Iftikhar Ahmed stands as the third with winning Rs. 61,916 as prize money for his achievement.
In the KGC Professionals category, Ayaz Gul took the lead and won Rs. 81,000. Taj Nabi of KPT, Shehzad Yousuf and Shakir Ali followed him on second place with a share of Rs. 51,450 apiece.
Rs. 82,350 were awarded to Nabeel Khan who won the first position in KGC Caddies category while Muhammad Nawaz stands as the second runner up with Rs. 66,600 and Kalfort Jan claimed third position and got Rs. 49,950.
KGC Senior Professionals category's first spot went to Latif Khaskheli ahead of Syed Jamal Badshah. Young Professionals category saw Asad Khan of PAF reigning supreme ahead of Kashif Masih.
