ISLAMABAD: Local lad Salman Khan stayed cool, carding a relatively good two over 74 on a demanding final day to wrest the honours, winning the Blue ARC Federal Amateur Golf Championship trophy here at the Islamabad Course Sunday.

Salman stays cool to clinch Federal Golf honour
By Abdul Mohi ShahMay 16, 2022
ISLAMABAD: Local lad Salman Khan stayed cool, carding a relatively good two over 74 on a demanding final day to wrest the honours, winning the Blue ARC Federal Amateur Golf Championship trophy here at the Islamabad Course Sunday.

On a day when scratching heat made it increasingly difficult for the leading golfers to hold their nerves, Salman carded a gross score of two over 74 to win the trophy with a clear difference of six strokes.

Early leader Hamza Khattak had to contend with runner-up position in the amateur gross, with an aggregate score of nine over. On the last eighteen holes, he could only manage eight over 80 that did no good to his aggregate score. Lahore Gymkhana’s golfer Qasim Ali Khan was two-stroke behind, carding the final day’s best to finish third. His score of par 72 on the final day helped him gain position at the leaderboard.

Excessive heat and a triple bogey on hole No 17 messed up Omar Khalid’s chances of a better finish. The teenager from DHA Karachi carded nine over 81 on the final day to finish sixth.

“Early morning heat and triple bogey at the hole No 17 did no good to my chances. However, I gained important points and much needed experience from the event,” Omar said.

In the amateur net, seven-stroke handicap golfer Umar Farooq, son of former top amateur golfer Tariq Mehmood landed the title with three under 233 net.

“The last round where I played five under 67 helped me take the lead in the net. I hope to improve further in days to come,” Umar added.

Though Salman had a better net score, he already had won the gross event and it was Umer who was declared the winner.

Shumayl Aziz and Rashid Malik finished first and second runner-up, respectively.

Tehmina Ahmed (173) won the ladies gross trophy contested over 36 holes with Arooba Ali (175) and Tahria Nazir (179) finishing first and second runners-up, respectively.

Salza Almgir (150) was the ladies net winner with Zeenat Ayesha and Uzma Nazir also getting prizes.

Seasoned pro Ghazanfar Mehmood maintained his one-stroke lead to scoop up professional title solely meant for those getting less exposure. On the last day, he carded two over to get an aggregate of par 216 for three days. The day’s best score came from Minhaj Maqsood and Asad Khan (both carding three under 69 in the last round) to finish second and third respectively in the professional category. Minhaj (217) and Asad (218) finished on the heels of the ultimate winner.

There was a three-way tie for senior amateur gross category with Ibrar Khan ultimately winning the event. Brig Tahir Zahid finished runner up with the score 158 gross over two days and Brig Masood getting second runners up trophy.

In the juniors’ category, Abdullah Aamir (66) was declared the net winner in handicap 24 and below. In handicap 18 and below competition Muhammad Danyal with the score of 64 net emerged winner.

Air Marshal Farhat Hussain Khan (r),

President Center for Aerospace and Security Studies, was the guest of honor who also distributed prizes among the winners.

When the PGA Tour sent an email to its membership late Tuesday informing players that it had denied requests for a conflicting-event release to play in the LIV Golf Invitational Series inaugural event in London the same week as the Tour’s RBC Canadian Open, it was bound to become a topic of conversation at this week’s AT&T Byron Nelson.

“As a membership organization, we believe this decision is in the best interest of the PGA Tour and its players,” wrote Tyler Dennis, the Tour’s senior vice president and chief of operation.

World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler said he had a busy night at home, woke up early and played his pro am and hadn’t had much time to process the Tour’s decision, but at first glance supported the move.

“I kind of figured that was something that would happen,” he said in his pre-tournament news conference ahead of the AT&T Byron Nelson in his hometown of Dallas. “If you’re playing here on the PGA Tour, playing in something that could be a rival series to the PGA Tour, being a member of our Tour, it’s definitely not something where we want our membership to do because it’s going to harm the tournament that we have opposite that and that’s, I’m sure that’s why they were, why they did not release the players. Because if we have 15 guys go over there and play that hurts the RBC and the Canadian Open.”

Will Zalatoris, last year’s Rookie of the Year and a member of the Tour’s Player Advisory Council, has been involved in talks behind closed doors and fully backed the decision made by Commissioner Jay Monahan.

“I thought that was the perfect response,” Zalatoris said. “Because we’re in a great place, the Tour’s in the best spot it’s ever been, it’s only going to get better and why would we want to, why would we encourage our players to get releases for those events when essentially we have all these sponsors that are involved with the Tour and are only making it better and better. We’re trying to promote our best product possible and if you want to be a part of this where it’s only getting better and better, then you shouldn’t have it both ways. You have a choice, I mean, you really do. You can go if you’d like, but, you know, it is what it is.”

Justin Thomas has made it clear repeatedly that he’s interested in winning tournaments and creating a legacy in the game more than simply lining his bank account with more lucre.

“I would hope it would deter them from going over there,” he said. “I think Jay’s made it very clear from the start of what would happen or, you know, I think a lot of people are probably like, “I can’t believe you did this’ or, ‘Wow, you went through with it.’ But I mean this is what he said was going to happen all along. And, yeah, it’s one of those things to where he just doesn’t want the competing tour, the back and forth. You know, it’s like, Look, if you want to go, go. I mean there’s been plenty of guys that have been advocates of it and have just talked it up all the time and they have been guys behind the scenes that are saying, ‘I’m going, I’m doing this.’ And like my whole thing is, like just go then. Like stop going back and forth or like you say you’re going to do this, it’s like you can do — everybody’s entitled to do what they want, you know what I mean?

“Like if I wanted to go play that tour I could go play that tour. But I’m loyal to the PGA Tour and I’ve said that and I think there’s a lot of opportunity for me to, I mean, break records, make history, do a lot of things on the PGA Tour I want to do. And there could be people that want to make that change and it’s like you’re allowed to have that decision, you’re a human being and that’s just a part of it.”

Former European Ryder Cup Captain Paul McGinley, who played most of his career on the DP World Tour, served as both a captain, Ryder Cup teammate and fellow competitor with many of the European players linked with joining the LIV series (including Lee Westwood, Sergio Garcia among others) brings a Euro-centric perspective. He expressed his opinion in an interview Wednesday with SiriusXM and joined Scheffler, Thomas and Zalatoris in supporting the established tours, which announced a strategic alliance in 2020 and have been rumored to be discussing a closer relationship to fend off the Saudi threat.

“I’m not gonna make this personal, they’re all friends of mine,” McGinley said. “But I’m very much a traditionalist, I’m very much aligned with the PGA, DP World Tour and the major championships indeed in terms of retaining and improving the status quo that we have at the moment, which is, you know, every week that we have both European and PGA Tours. So I want to enhance that. I think we have commonalities between the two tours trying to enhance that, uh, get somewhat of a world schedule going together. I know there’s some talks gone on behind the scenes in that regard of those two major tours coming together and working more collaboratively going forward.”

LIV Golf, which Tuesday announced a $2 billion infusion to support its launch, has been touting exorbitant purses and guaranteed money to lure players to enter its events.

“I can somewhat understand and see where the guys are coming from. I mean, the amount of money that’s been put on the table is an incredible amount of, huge amount of money. And so late in their careers an opportunity to make so much money,” McGinley said. “In a lot of ways I can understand the enticement that they’ve been offered and why they would be interested in it. But it’s not certainly, personally from my point of view, the side of the fence that I’m on.”

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, one pro who splits time on both the PGA Tour and DP World Tour told our Eamon Lynch the following: “I’m for sure weighing up the pros and cons of making a jump like this. What Jay [Monahan] decides is a hugely important part of that. Asking permission to play an international ‘tour’ event is something I’ve done with the PGA Tour since I first took my card many years ago. I understand the initial construct of this LIV tour was destructive in nature if the PGA Tour didn’t want part of it. Here in the short term, the events are being scheduled to be as non-conflicting as possible which is difficult to do. As a player who plays multiple tours, conflicting events is something we always deal with and I don’t see how the LIV tour is any different until it’s 48 guys locked in for 14 events a season.”

Max Homa kept hearing from his coach, caddie and other supporters that he needed to carry himself with more confidence, an attitude befitting a multiple PGA Tour winner.

With his fourth win overall, third in 15 months and second since he gave up his popular podcast to focus on his career and mental health, the 31-year-old is starting to believe.

Homa played solid, steady golf during a week of cold, wet conditions and a back-and-forth Sunday duel with Keegan Bradley, closing with a 2-under 68 for a two-shot victory in the Wells Fargo Championship.

“All of a sudden last year I get in the top 50 in the world and you start looking around and it’s a new crop of people and you start thinking to myself, ‘Am I as good as these guys?’” Homa said. “So I’ve always struggled with it, but I have great people around me who bash me over the head telling me that I am that guy. I tried to walk around this week believing that and faking it a little bit until I made it.”

With his win last September in Napa, California, Homa joins Scottie Scheffler (four), Hideki Matsuyama (two), Sam Burns (two) and Cameron Smith (two) as multiple winners on tour this season. He has yet to contend in a major, but his next chance comes in his next start, the PGA Championship at Southern Hills.

He also moves to sixth in the Presidents Cup standings, meaning he’s in position to earn a return visit this September to the Wells Fargo’s usual home, Quail Hollow in Charlotte, North Carolina. Homa got his first career win in 2019 at Quail Hollow, which took the year off as Wells Fargo host while it prepares for the U.S.-versus-International team competition.

“I care about nothing more than making that Presidents Cup team, so I really hope captain Davis Love III was watching today,” he said.

TPC Potomac, which last hosted the tour in 2018, held up well despite torrential rain on Friday and Saturday and unseasonably cold temperatures most of the week.

Bradley started the day with a two-shot lead, gave it away on the par-5 second hole and got it back on the par-4 eighth before Homa finally took command for good on the back nine. A bogey on the closing hole gave Bradley a 2-over 72 and a tie for second with Cameron Young and Matt Fitzpatrick.

Bradley led the field in putting under the PGA Tour’s “strokes gained” metric, a welcome change for a player who’s struggled on the greens for nearly a decade.

“It’s the best it’s been since I’ve had the belly putter and it’s not even close,” he said.

Homa played conservatively Saturday, the toughest scoring day of the week, but was aggressive right away Sunday while keeping his umbrella stowed in his golf bag for the first time since the opening round.

He twirled his 7-iron as he watched his approach on the par-4 first hole settle 8 feet from the hole. A lob wedge to 8 feet on the par-4 fifth was good for another birdie, and a 7-iron inside 10 feet on the par-3 ninth allowed him to turn in 34, 2 under for the day and tied with Bradley, who steadied himself after a nervy start.

Seeking to move high enough in the world ranking to secure a spot in the U.S. Open at The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts, the 35-year-old New England native hit a poor shot from a greenside bunker on the par-5 second hole, leading to double bogey. Afterward, caddie Scott Vail asked police to eject a couple of heckling fans.

Bradley rallied with three birdies in a four-hole stretch. But the next two of five two-shot swings between the final pairing belonged to Homa. Bradley found a penalty area right of the 11th green, leading to double bogey. When Homa converted another birdie on the par-4 15th, he had a three-shot lead with three to play.

Homa had to make a 5-footer for bogey on the 16th as Bradley made birdie to move within one. When Homa lagged his birdie putt to tap-in range on 18, it was finally over.

“I putted awesome,” Homa said. “When you putt it like I did this week, it’s, you know, you almost have to mess up to at least not contend.”

Homa won on Mother’s Day two weeks after he and wife Lacey announced they are expecting their first child, a boy.

“Sometimes my life feels too good to be true, and this is one of those cases,” he said.

Young made six birdies ranging in length from 8 feet to 6 inches in his closing 66 for his third runner-up finish in the 24-year-old’s rookie season on tour. Fitzpatrick birdied the 18th to conclude a bogey-free 67.

“I gave myself every chance to shoot something better than that and just didn’t quite do it,” Young said. “I think I played really well knowing that I had to do something special to have a chance to win and almost did.”

The largest galleries of the day belonged to Rory McIlroy, who began the day six shots off the lead and was 3 under through 10 holes. But he stalled from there and closed with a bogey for a 68 to finish alone in fifth, four shots back.

“No complaints with the game,” said McIlroy, coming off a runner-up finish at the Masters. “Everything feels pretty solid.”

Late last year, Tiger Woods posted a two-second swing clip that sent the golf world into a frenzy.

Wednesday, a similar-length clip of Phil Mickelson was posted on social media. And while it won’t have the same wildfire spread as Tiger’s swing did, it did fan the flames of speculation.

The Fire Pit Collective posted to its Twitter account video of Mickelson hitting a driver, saying the action took place on Tuesday at Rancho Santa Fe Golf Club in California.

This would be the first public video of Mickelson hitting a shot since he said on Feb. 22 that he was taking time away from competitive golf.

“The past 10 years I have felt the pressure and stress slowly affecting me at a deeper level,” Mickelson said in that statement. “I know I have not been my best and desperately need some time away to prioritize the ones I love most and work on being the man I want to be.”

While little has been seen of or heard from Mickelson over the last two months, his agent, Steve Loy, said earlier this week that Mickelson had registered for the PGA Championship and the U.S. Open, and that he has applied for a release to compete in the first LIV Golf Invitational Series event.

“Phil currently has no concrete plans on when and where he will play,” Loy added. “Any actions taken are in no way a reflection of a final decision made, but rather to keep all options open.”

Mickelson is the defending champion at the PGA, which will take place May 19-22 at Southern Hills in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The first LIV event is scheduled for London, June 9-11.

Mickelson skipped the Masters Tournament for the first time since 1994 and hasn’t played an event since the Asian Tour’s Saudi International in early February. It was shortly after the Saudi event that Mickelson was quoted by a Fire Pit Collective writer as making disparaging comments about both the PGA Tour and the Saudi-backed upstart league.

To many, Phil Mickelson’s reputation is tarnished. But to Jon Rahm, that’s not the case.

Following controversial comments regarding the Saudi-backed league and PGA Tour, Mickelson has stayed away from golf and the public eye since February. But speaking to Todd Lewis Tuesday ahead of the Mexico Open, Rahm said he thinks it’s time to ease up on the six-time major champion.

“[Mickelson] has given his life to golf,” Rahm said. “A lot of what we have, a lot of people don’t know, a lot of what we have and what we are competing for right now is because of him. A lot of people focus on Tiger but he is easily one of the top 10 best players of all time. He is a Hall of Fame and we should recognize him as that. He has given his life to the public, no one has signed more autographs, no one has done more for the fans.

“I know he’s in a bit of a slump for whatever it may be. I don’t think his whole career or whole legacy should change because of a couple comments.”

Rahm and Mickelson’s relationship goes back to the Spaniard’s days at Mickelson’s alma mater, Arizona State, and they have developed a close friendship despite an almost 25-year age difference. When Rahm won his first major at last year’s U.S. Open, the first player to greet him on the range was Mickelson.

When Mickelson’s controversy engulfed in February, Rahm gave Lefty his support.

“He’s still a great friend of mine,” Rahm said ahead of the WM Phoenix Open. “I don’t know why he said what he said or why he said how he said it, but all I can say is I support him as a friend, yet I don’t agree with everything he said.”

Mickelson filed entries to play the PGA Championship and U.S. Open, along with a release to play the LIV opener in London in June. However, Mickelson’s agent, Steve Loy, said: “Phil currently has no concrete plans on when and where he will play. Any actions taken are in no way a reflection of a final decision made, but rather to keep all options open.”

Although Rahm is bullish on Mickelson moving forward, he also believes there’s mending to be done on the 51-year-old’s side.

“Everyone makes mistakes and everything can be rectified. I believe that can happen,” Rahm said, “but it has to come from him as well.”