Irfan-Rashid wins Pakistan Day Open Golf Tournament
The Pakistani pair of Rana Irfan and Amin Rashid won a three-way battle for the title on countback in the 8th Annual Pakistan Day Open Golf Tournament 2015 at Dirab Golf & Country Club on Saturday.
Irfan and Rashid and two other teams namely John Morris-Chiara Formenton and Boiet Carigma-Oscar Domingo all posted a net score of 64 at the end of the two ball Texas Scramble format competition in benign conditions.
The eventual champion team returned the best score of 35 when the back nine scores were compared. The husband-and-wife team of British Morris and Italian Formenton took the second place but not after the tiebreak went all the way down to the 18th hole. They were tied with the Filipino tandem on 37 for the last nine holes, and the deadlock continued to the last six and last three until Morris and Formenton edged ahead with a bogey on the last hole to their rivals’ double bogey.
Carigma and Domingo settled for third position ahead of another Filipino pair of Alex Arellano and Resty Sibug who in turn clinched fourth place on countback (34-35) over Pakistanis Mujib Minhas and Rohit Jamwal after the sides tied on 65.
The first three winners all carried team handicap of 9. Arellano and Sibug, now with a new partner in two ball events after his son Christer Rem Sibug has left the Kingdom for good to pursue college studies, distinguished themselves for shooting the day’s low gross of 68 but then had the lowest handicap of 3 among the winners. Minhas and Jamwal played off 7 handicap.
Irfan and Rashid fired nines of 38-35 in a round that saw them mix three bogeys and one birdie going out. They also birdied the par-3 No. 11 and parred the rest of the holes.
Like the champion pair Morris and Formenton returned a gross score of 73 (36-37) as did Carigma and Domingo.
Playing in the same group and starting on No. 9, Morris-Formenton and Carigma-Domingo traded birdies right on the opening hole to begin a resolute display of shotmaking against each other.
The winners of the longest drive awards were Gary Stobie and Bridget Kirwan, while Jack Moloney won the closest to the pin plum.
Ambassador Manzoor Ul-Haq of the Pakistan Embassy attended the prize distribution ceremony and handed out prizes to the winners along with Naseer Uddin Siddiqui, former Dirab Golf Committee chairman, and incumbent chairman Tariq Javed.
The tournament sponsors are M. N. Bin Rajeh Partner & Contracting Company & Industrial Steps Factory for Metal Work through Khalid Raja and Shamshad Siddiqui, Pakistan National Bank, Orix Saudi Arabia, Osim, American Express and Mehran Spices.
Siddiqui donated products from Extra. Fauzia Shamim, an active member of Dirab Ladies Group, likewise supported the event as she bids goodbye to the Pakistani golfing community. Fauzia and husband Javed are leaving on exit-only visa after a 40-year stay in the Kingdom.