Pakistan's Ahmed Baig wins Qatar Open Amateur Golf Championship

KARACHI: Pakistan’s fast-rising golfer Ahmed Baig won the Qatar Open amateur Golf championship played in Doha Gulf Club on Saturday.

19-year-old Ahmed, who earlier won Pakistan’s edition of Faldo Challenge this month, emerged as the winner in the three-day championship, he played over 54 holes with a score of under 3.

The young golfer from Lahore couldn’t do well on day one where he played one-over-par after bogies in four holes which overshadowed his birdies on three holes.

On the second day of the championship, Ahmed made a big move when he shot two-under-par (70) to bring himself back in contention for the title with a birdy on holes 5th, 7th, 9th, 14th and 16th.

Ahmed looked comfortable on the third day as well and remained at-par on first 9 holes. However, a double bogey at 13th hole gave him a scare but he managed to finish as the leader with birdies on number 14th, 16th and 18th to keep his score to two-under.

Another player from Pakistan, Taimoor Khan, finished 6th on the leaders’ board. Taimoor was three strokes ahead of the par-score to complete the championship with a gross score of 219. Taimoor played at-par in round one, but in the second and third round, he scored over-2 and over-1 respectively.

With this win, Ahmed, the tournament champion, along with the winner in the professional category and two best Qatari finishers gets a berth at the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters 2018, a European Tour event, to be held from February 22 to 25 at the same venue.

He will also represent Pakistan at the 11th Faldo Series Asia Grand Final to be held at the Laguna Lang Co Golf Club in Danang, Vietnam, in March this year.