LAHORE: Mohammad Rehman maintained his supremacy on the second day of the Fifth Chief of Naval Staff Golf Championship at Royal Palm Club course here on Saturday with his two-day aggregate of 144 giving him a six-stroke lead over defending champion Ghazanfar Mahmood.

Rehman, of Royal Palm, was nervous in the first nine holes — as was Garden City Club’s Ghazanfar.

Rehman lost strokes on the second, fifth, sixth and eighth holes while closest challenger Ghazanfar bogeyed on holes two, four, five, seven and nine.

The duo, however, came into their own and sparkled over the back nine — Rehman managing classy birdies on five holes to finish with a gross score of 74 and Ghazanfar making birdies on holes 16 and 17 to finish with 76 in the second round.

“I will certainly go all out in the final 18 holes and come what may I have my eye on this prestigious title,” Rehman said looking forward to Sunday’s final round.

Ghzanfar is tied at an aggregate of 150 with Karachi’s Zohaib Asif with Tariq Mehmood and Sajid Khan tied at third, a further two strokes behind.

Faisal Saiyid is a further stroke behind, ahead of Salman Jehangir (155) and Robin Bagh and Zunair Aleem (both 157).

Along with main championship, a contest was held between the Pakistan Navy’s North and South teams which was won by the former.

In the same competition, Vice Admiral K.H.B.Saddique won the net event ahead of Cdre Ghazanfar Abbas and Capt Ahmed Hussain while Cmdr M.Yasin was the gross winner ahead of Cdre Mateen-ur-Rehman and Cdre Tariq Ali.

The longest drive and nearest to pin prize were won by Vice Admiral K.H.B.Saddique.

The senior amateurs, meanwhile, completed their round of nine holes on the second day to complete the 18-hole event.

Imran Ahmed of Defence Raya was the gross winner with 74, ahead of Tariq Mehmood of Garrison (76) and Col Muhammed Shafi (80).

The net winner was Javed A.Khan with a 69, finishing ahead of Col Ikram ul Haq (71) and Col Manzoor Hussain (72).

Published in Dawn, November 29th, 2015