Ace Junior Golf League shines in Islamabad.

The 2nd Ace Junior Golf League (AJGL) Golf Match was held at the Bahria Garden City Golf and Country Club (BGCG and C) Islamabad on January 21. Despite predictions of heavy rainfall, 60 passionate young boys and girls, aged between 5 and 18 years, ignored the weather forecast and participated with full enthusiasm.

Their commendable dedication speaks volumes for the future of golf in Pakistan. Credit for infusing this spirit amongst junior golfers at the grassroots level, must be given, unreservedly, to the remarkable team comprising its founder: President Munazza Shaheen and its hands - on Patron Dr Asma Afzal Shami. Working under the patronage and support of its Patron-in-chief, Lt Gen Mian Muhammad Hilal Hussain (R), the former President of PGF, they have jointly achieved an unbelievable level of success in putting Project AJGL on such sound foundations in the short span of three months.

It may be recalled that the AJGL first appeared on Pakistan's 'Golfing Landscape' when almost a 100, U-18, junior golfers participated in its Inaugural Match held on October 1-2, 2022 at Lahore Garrison Greens. The aim of AJGL is to act as a nursery for discovering, nurturing and producing the country's future golf champions. It is worth mentioning that Munazza, its President, is the only Pakistani to earn a distinction while qualifying as a Level-II Referee from a foreign establishment and has the honour of being the Chief Referee of the 5th PGF International Ladies Golf Championship held in 2022 in Islamabad.

After studying the Junior Golf Leagues of USA, Malasia and Thailand, she has set two basic operating principles for her AJGL, i.e. firstly, dividing all golfers into age based categories and secondly, making them compete on the basis of gross scores only. She also wants to help develop their golfing potential via a combination of three related aspects, i.e. skill building by professional coaching, mental preparation through golf psychology and arranging frequent competitions for honing their competitive spirit and developing their ability to withstand match pressure. In the 2nd AJGL Match, junior golfers from Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Peshawar and Lahore participated in four age-based categories. In Girls Birdie Category (4-10 years), Zoha Zeehan won the 1st position, Aleena Khan got second and little Korean player Taehui Kang won 3rd prize. Among Birdie Boys, Zalmay Amin from Peshawar won first position followed by Abdaal Khan (2nd) and Fazeel Ahmed...