The 2nd Ghazala Ansari Challenge Cup Ladies Amateur Golf Championship commenced on Thursday at the Lahore Gymkhana Golf Club under the overall supervision of Dr Asma Afzal Shami, the Chief Organizer of the event. Tournament Director Mrs Bela Azam is responsible for the conduct of the championship, ably assisted by the Chief Referee Mrs Munazza Shaheen.
Addressing the press conference here at Gymkhana Golf Club, Dr Shami expressed great satisfaction at the fact that, since last few years, ladies golf in Pakistan has developed to a point where seven exclusive ladies amateur championship are included in the PGF Annual Golf Calendar. She stated that last year, a series of ladies golf championships were organized to honour the memory of our ladies golf icons of yester years, who were the true pioneers of Ladies Golf in Pakistan and their epic achievements have made them our Role Models.”
Ex-President PGF, Gen. Hilal, commented, “Highlighting the tremendous accomplishments of yesteryear champions is an innovative idea and will certainly inspire Junior Girls to excel in Golf.”
The first such event was successfully organized by Dr. Shami in Peshawar in December 2021 to honour the memory of the late Ms Soni Wali. The 2nd Ghazala Ansari cup is another event in this ongoing series and is aimed at honouring the memory of the legendary Ghazala Ansari who is, by far, the best Lady Golfer ever produced by Pakistan. She totally dominated Ladies Golf throughout the 1960’s. She stunned the golfing community by becoming the first Pakistani lady to achieve a Handicap of 1.
It has taken the rest of the lady golfers over 50 years to match this achievement, as we now have three young ladies, ie Parkha, Rimsha and Humna, who earned this honour in 2021. Utterly inspired by Ghazala’s crowning achievement, Humna Amjad became a scratch player and now Parkha Ijaz also joined her. On this account, elated Ghazala Ansari expressed, “It gives me immense pleasure to note that here are the young bright girls in my country who are surpassing our achievements and shinning far brighter”.
However, Ghazala’s crowning achievement was her winning the National Championship 6 times. Unfortunately, thereafter, she had to stop playing golf due to the onset of a very serious illness. While this record of 6 victories, stood exclusively in her name for almost 50 years, she now shares this honour with Ghazala Yasmin, who equalled her record three years ago, but has yet to surpass it.
Lady golfers from all over the Country are participating in this historic event. The next three days should see some highly competitive golf, especially among the single handicappers. A special mention needs to be made of the eagerness with which Lahore Gymkhana agreed to host this Championship in honour of its most illustrious Lady Golfer. Credit must be given in particular to Mr Sarmad Nadeem, Convenor Golf, Mr Taha Mehmood, the Golf Captain, and Mr. Taimoor Anwer, the manager, for the outstanding arrangements that they have put in place for its conduct.
It is pertinent to mention that this event ‘TOTALLY A WOMEN’S SHOW’. It has been conceived by a Lady, to honour a Lady Icon, is being funded exclusively by a lady entrepreneur and is being conducted by a Championship Committee comprised entirely of Ladies. Finally, The Chief Guest will be Begum Perveen Sarwar, the former First Lady of the Punjab.