LAHORE – The 1st Rumanza Open Golf Championship extended over five days of classy golf playing activity in the beginning of March at Sir Nick Faldo designed first signature golf course of Pakistan, the Rumanza Golf Course, DHA Multan.
With striking attributes like, 270 acres spread, three zones, the desert zone, the wetland zone and the woodland zone, this golf course has captivated the locals as well as yearning ones from major golf centers of the country, like Karachi, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Islamabad and Peshawar and foreign visitors to Multan including the golf playing English cricketers.
No doubt its lush green meadows, fruit filled orchards, classy fairways and 51 Eco Bunkers enthrall and dazzle the earnest, ardent and diligent ones who travel to Rumanza Golf Club for rounds of golf that leave unfading impressions on their golf related experience.
Historically the city of Multan was known as a major cultural and economic centre of Southern Punjab and now added to all this is illustrious noteworthiness as an international golf playing centre with links to 200 top golf courses of the world.
Through this history-creating grand championship, Rumanza played host to lady golfers, veterans above 70 years of age, senior amateurs, senior professionals, junior professionals, merited amateurs with handicap of nine and below and the 100 super golf professionals, who were loaded with motivation about competing at this magnificent and technically demanding 18 holes golf course.
Additionally, all of them felt spell bound by the name Rumanza that covered romance, urge to excel, magnificence, aesthetic design, nature, zealous challenge and ardentness. A few more features that augmented Rumanza were GEO Certification, making it the first golf course in South Asia to achieve this and also significant were outstanding novelties linked to the golf course like, signature design, development by renowned international architects, worldwide golfing affiliations, plus the eco bunkers and a comprehensive golf lighting system in place. From the financial angle the huge attraction for eligible golf professionals was the cash-laden purse of Rs 12 Million and an alluring car for a hole-in-one.
Out of the aspiring golf professionals, some of the contenders were heralded and rated highly and predictions, assessments and statistics seems to favor them. However, the championship became a model one for young Ahmed Baig, a brand ambassador for Rumanza. He was unquestionably the player of the Championship and certainly a formidable one.
From the very word go, there was no doubt about his win at Rumanza. He led every round and had the luxury of a five stroke lead when the final eighteen holes began. For once he came up to expectations and played within his immense capabilities. Spectacular effects were resisted and he cruised home to ultimate victory in unruffled style. Along the way his drills eased many a putt and at critical points he was seen taking water refills to steady his nerves. This huge effort made him the Rumanza model in the presence of established champions like Shabbir Iqbal, M Munir and Matloob Ahmed.
Brig Fayyaz Ahmed Sial, Col M Anwar Tarrar, Tournament Director and Samuel Humphery, General Manager, Col Habib, DHA Project Secretary, deserve all the credit for holding this grand 1st Rumanza Open Golf Championship which has enabled youngsters like Minhaj Maqsood, M Shahzad, Salman Jehangir, Qasim Ali Khan with reputation substantially enhanced.
Saad Habib is just sixteen years old and his golfing talent certainly appears a gift of Nature. In this championship of golf champions, Saad Habib showed exemplary resoluteness to make the cut and remain well placed in the race amongst top performers. His potential is bound to bloom. In the months to come the Management at Rumanza plans to make this a place of excellence for golfing activity.
