Muhammad Shabbir and Muhammad Munir etched their names in golf’s history books when they guided Pakistan to their first Omega Mission Hills World Cup after finishing in the top three at the Asian Qualifier.
The unheralded Pakistani duo carded a superb three under par 68 in the final round foursomes at Seri Selangor Golf Club in Malaysia to finish third behind winners Singapore, represented by Lam Chih Bing and Mardan Mamat, and the Philippines pair of Mars Pucay and Angelo Que.
Lam and Mardan secured their fourth World Cup appearance together after claiming a one stroke victory following a closing 72 for a four day total of 15 under par 269 while Que and Pucay also signed off with a 72 to finish one back.
“Pakistan have played in the cricket World Cup, hockey World Cup and squash World Cup but never before in our history that we’ve been in golf’s World Cup. We showed that we are in there for the first time and hopefully we will be able to perform well in China,” said a delighted Munir. “I don’t know how to describe how we feel right now. I’m sure everyone in Pakistan will be very happy,” he added.
Pakistan mixed their scorecard with four birdies against two bogeys before nailing a crucial final birdie on the 18th hole to seal an historic debut against the world’s best in China from November 26-29.
Shabbir, who recently recovered from a long-term back injury, relied on Munir’s experience and said his partner steered them to third place. “I couldn’t read the greens this week and I told Munnir that I was out of form. But he told me that he had confidence in me and he guided me along. That’s why we made the cut.”
Lam and Mardan last qualified for the World Cup in 2006 at Seri Selangor and they were delighted to win again at the par 71 course.
“Two years now that we have played here and twice we’ve won it. Maybe this course likes us or we like the course. We kept ourselves very relaxed and that was the key. We managed to complete our mission and get ourselves into the top-three,” said Mardan.
Lam said: “All we did was to focus on our own game. Starting out with a big gap over third place this morning, we were comfortable out there. The World Cup is such an enjoyable experience and I really missed playing in it the last couple of years.”
Pucay and Que also qualified for their second straight World Cup appearance after a solid week. They recovered from an early bogey with an eagle on the sixth hole before dropping shots again with double bogeys on the tenth and 18th holes to finish with a four day total of 270.
Final scores:
269 – Singapore (LAM Chih Bing, Mardan MAMAT) 64-71-62-72
270 – Philippines (Mars PUCAY, Angelo QUE) 60-72-66-72
274 – Pakistan (Muhammad SHABBIR, Muhammad MUNIR) 68-73-65-68
(Top three teams qualify for Omega Mission Hills World Cup)
276 – Malaysia (Danny CHIA, Iain STEEL) 66-74-65-71
279 – Myanmar (Zaw MOE, Soe Kyaw NAING) 67-73-65-74
284 – Hong Kong (David FREEMAN, WONG Woon Man) 66-72-67-79
286 – Bangladesh (Milon AHMED, Siddikur RAHMAN) 69-74-69-74
293 – Indonesia (Maan NASIM, SARMILIH) 69-77-72-75
296 – Sri Lanka (Lalith KUMARA, Anura ROHANA) 70-77-68-81
296 – Nigeria Christian UTUBOR, Edet UMOH) 70-80-69-77
308 – Ghana (Theophilus KODJO, Emos KORBLAH) 74-81-75-78
309 – Brunei (Faiz DAMIT, Pengiran HASSANAL) 74-77-77-81
332 – Mauritius (Rajesh MOHUN, Jocelyn SAVRIMOOTOO) 77-89-74-92
DQ – NEPAL (Ramesh NAGARKOTI, Pashupati SHARMA) 82-84-75
