LAHORE        -      Ahmed Baig, now developing as the golf star of Pakistan, has gradually begun to intimidate his fellow competitors not through some consistently excellent performances that overawe not only his contenders but also attract generous words of praise from the experts who devotedly keep a track of him.

For the second round running, Ahmed was once again, all charged up at the Rumanza Golf Course and through superb hitting and with his putter in full control, he fashioned a bogie free round of gross 67, five under and thereby aggregates for himself a two-round score of 137, seven under par and apparent is his conquering look. With this kind of achievement, he has eased the situation for himself, moving into the third round of this four-round contest of golf champions. As a result of his great showing, even heralded players like M Munir, Matloob Ahmed and Shabbir Iqbal look ordinary.

Minhaj Maqsood of Rawalpindi Golf Club, who was the first-round leader, is placed second with two rounds scores of 68 and 76 and an aggregate score of 144. He is languishing seven strokes behind the leader. At an aggregate score of 146 are M Shahzad (Lahore Garrison), Syed Raza Ali (Rumanza Golf Club) and Ashiq Hussain (Multan). Other notable ones are M Naeem at 148, M Saqib, M Zubair and M Alam at 149, and three players at 150 are M Ashfaq, M Nazir and Aashir Masih. There was a cut after the second round and as a result, 54 competitors made the cut in the professional Category.

They will play the remaining two rounds. In the amateurs’ event, Saad Habib of Rumanza Golf Club leads the gross section with a score of 150 for two days. Also bracketed with him at 150 is Salman Jehangir of Lahore Gymkhana while Qasim Ali Khan is at 151, Damil Ataullah at 155 and Hussain Hamid at 157.