Baig wins Qatar Open Golf Tournament Title
DOHA, January 28, 2018 - Pakistani teenaged debutant Ahmed Baig followed his clutch approach shot with a short birdie putt and hijacked the Qatar Open Golf Tournament amateur crown from overnight leader Ayoub Id Omar of Morocco with a shot in a pulsating finale on the third and final day here on Saturday.
At the Doha Golf Club, the conditions were far less harsh than yesterday and England's Joshua White, overnight Pro class leader, sealed his victory with a strong back nine game as he produced a closing 70 for a three under 213 aggregate.
Both Baig and White, who was eight shots ahead of the second-placed Simon Khan in his class, will play in the prestigious Commercial Qatar Masters, scheduled at the same venue from February 22 to 25. The two also were gifted tickets by sponsor Royal Air Maroc's Country Manager Adil Khaloufi.
White earned QR7,000 for his efforts, while Khan got QR5,000 and third-placed Jean-Michel Hall pocketed QR3,000 in an all-English sweep of the Professional category, introduced this year.
Ali al Shahrani and Saleh Ali al Kaabi qualified for the Qatar Masters as the best Qatari players. While Shahrani, who missed the 2017 event due to his studies, carded a five over 77 to total eight over 224 to finish 14th overall, last year's runner-up Kaabi was a joint 21st after a third-round 78 to collect 16 over 232.
Dutch Mats Markovits shot a two under 70 to gain the fourth spot with one under 215. Jakub Hrinda, the 2015 champion, also had the same card for the day and shared the fifth spot with Mike Toorop, another Dutch player, after managing an aggregate of two over 218.
Three players were locked in the seventh place with three over total of 219 Dane Mikkel Mathiesen, Pakistani Taimoor Khan and American Thomas Strandemo, the 2015 runner-up. Mathiesen closed out the day with a par round, while Khan shot one over 73 and Strandemo could not play to his usual good standard and finished with three over 75 his worst card in this edition.
Polish Jan Szmidt, who was tied with defending champion Pierre Verlaar Jr at the 14th after two days, put together a fine closing 70 to move to a creditable top-10 finish. He was followed by Khan in the 11th and Hall in the 12th. Moroccan Othman Raouzi also slipped by five places to get the 13th spot with a seven over 227 total. Qatar's Shahrani was one shot ahead of Dutch Dario Antonisse and Moroccan El Mehdi Fakhori, who had nine over 225 aggregates.
Mohammed Faisal al Naimi, Qatar Golf Association Executive Director, and Mohamed Ibrahim al Muhanadi, QGA Board Member, gave away the cash prizes, trophies to the top 10 in the amateur class and top three professionals. The top group of overnight Omar, Baig and pro leader Joshua White provided thrills on the back nine. Omar, with three under par lead, had a birdie but lost the advantage due to a bogey in the first nine holes.
The drama began to unfold at the 11th hole, with Omar dropping a shot and both White and Baig coming up with birdie putts to force a three-way tie. Omar and White then continued to hold their game together till the 17th hole. Baig suffered a loss on par-3 14th but bounced back two successive birdies on the 15th and 16th to join the group mates at the top again.
After parring the 17th hole, Baig chose to attack the pin on the final hole after Omar drifted quite wide to left. White's third shot soared to a bit right and he landed outside the fairway. The British needed two shots to finish his round at two under 70 and Omar also did the same.
But Baig's chip went just over the pin and rolled back to leave him with about three and a half feet birdie putt. The Pakistani held his nerves and rolled the ball home to a 'wild celebration' by the Pakistani group with a couple of persons rushing onto the green when both White and Omar had still to play their respective putts.
For Baig, who won the Faldo Challenge in Karachi earlier this month, it was a double success."Yeah... that shot was really the game changer. I opted to take my chances when I saw Omar go out of the putt range. By God's grace, I got the crucial birdie and win this big event in my first year," said Baig.
The Qatar Open is Baig's third international victory after he triumphed in Iran and Sri Lanka."I'm delighted to qualify for the big event like Qatar Masters and I'll try to do well in that tournament too," he added. Omar was downcast after losing a tournament he led on the first two days and till 15th hole today."I did not play good enough today.
The conditions were ok but there was a big pressure on me. My short game did not go according to my plan and I had to be satisfied with the second spot," the 21-year-old Moroccan commented. White was elated with winning the Pro class but he wanted to finish as an outright winner."I was very solid in the final holes...It was a tough situation to be in as I wanted to be the best scorer. Also I wanted to be the best scorer among the pros.
"It was quite tricky for me. I tried to be as positive as possible. I executed my game plan well and I'm very happy to be standing here with a spot coming back to me to play in the Qatar Masters," added White.
"I was a bit right off the rough. I could have used the driver and gone for the green. But I wanted to play very safe, to be honest, and get the job done," said White, whose best finish on the European Tour has been a shared 10th spot in the Trophy Hassan II in 2016.
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