LAHORE – The four rounds 49th Amateur Golf Championship of Pakistan contested at the par-72 Royal Palm Golf Course brought glory to a composed and assured amateur golfer of the country Ali Hai of Karachi.

All the four rounds of this national golfing event were dominated by Ali Hai through excellence in shot-making and superb work on the fast greens of Royal Palm Golf Course. His scores for the four rounds are 69+70+70+76=285, three under par. Incidentally, a few weeks before Ali Hai has distinguished himself in Bangladesh and won the Bangladesh Amateur Golf Championship 2010.

The runner-up in this National Championship is Muhammad Safdar of Gujranwala Golf Club who remained in the chase for victory and defence of his title but somehow, whereas M Safdar was methodical and steady, he lacked Ali Hai’s flair. During this championship, M Safdar had rounds of 70+70+74+74=288 and he lost to the winner by three strokes.

Certainly in the final round, Safdar matched Ali Hai stroke for stroke and the standard of play remained high throughout and in the end, the issue was virtually decided by Ali Hai’s putter.As for the other contestants, Waseem Rana of DHA Karachi made his presence felt and so did young Hamza Amin, Sajid Khan, Sufian Dhaduk, Zohaib Asif, Aleem-ur-Rahman and Mohammad Rehman.

They are youngsters on the cruise and search for honours and recognition and in a year or so will be big names in amateur golf.As for the new national champion Ali Hai, he seems adept at riding a crisis with coolness and at vital stages during a competition draws on a rich store of golfing skills and temperament to get things going his way. Here, at the 49th National Amateur Championship, he showed how a golf course like Royal Palm can be tamed and in the process a championship can be won.