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KARACHI: Pakistan top three golfers and the main contenders for the Pakistan Open Muhammad Shabbir Iqbal, Muhammad Munir and Matloob maintained their top positions, respectively, at the half way stage of the Championship at Defence Authority Golf Club here on Friday.
The country's most successful golfer Shabbir Iqbal though went below his opening round of three under-par 69 by going further one stroke adrift, carding two-under-70 to end with an aggregate of 139. Iqbal, however increased his lead from to two strokes against arch-rival and former Pakistan team-mate Munir.
From the statistical view point, Iqbal was rock solid, not too spectacular but steady and in full control with two birdies on the front nine, two on the back nine, twelve pars and two bogeys.
Munir was placed in hot-pursuit of Iqbal after the second round of one-under-par 71 to finish with total of 141.
As compared to Munir, Iqbal gained a four stroke ascendancy over Matloob who reached an aggregate of 143 (71+72).
Other golfer looking good and very much in contention are Shahid Javed Khan of Royal Palm at 144 (72+72), Irfan Mehmood of Rawalpindi at 146 (70+76) along with Talib Hussain of Islamabad and Afsar Ali of Karachi at the same score. They are followed by four competitors at 147 namely Imdad Hussain, Mehroz Ilyas, Javed Inayat and Hamza Amin.
Hamza Amin, barely 22 years old and a new entrant to the professional ranks, brightened the competition with a score of gross 68, four under par, the best score produced in the second round.
The cut was made after the second round and only 44 professionals will be featuring in third and fourth round. Forty seven participants were eliminated after the second round.
