Omar Khalid Bounces Back With 75 At World Team Golf Championship.

LAHORE -- Pakistan No.1 Omar Khalid bounced back from a disappointing first round to card a respectable score of 75 in the 32nd World Amateur Team Golf Championship at the Le Golf National in Paris on Thursday morning.

According to information made available here, On a day when his teammates Salman Jehangir and Yashal Shah flopped in the second round of the 72-hole championship, Omar made three birdies on a pleasant morning to make amends for his opening round card of 85 at the par-72 Golf de Saint-Nom-La-Breteche course on Wednesday evening. Yashal, who carded 76 in the opening round, faltered in the second round scoring 15-over par 86 at the par-71 Le Golf National. Lahore's Salman, the most experienced player in Pakistan's three-member team, followed his opening day's 84 with a disappointing 86 in the second round.

Omar, 18, was in top gear in the second round at Le Golf National, counted among the toughest championship courses in the world, as he made birdies on holes 3, 14 and 16 to improve his position on the leaderboard with an aggregate of 160. Yashal is two shots behind him at 162 followed by Salman at 170. 'I had a bad outing on the first day but thankfully things were better today,' Omar said. 'Hopefully we will do better in the next two rounds.'

Meanwhile, Japan, with Taiga Semikawa shooting nine-under 63, distanced itself from a tightly packed leaderboard with a 14-under-par to take a six-stroke lead over Spain in the first round of the Championship on Wednesday. Austria, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland and the host nation France share third place, seven strokes behind Japan, while Australia opened with a five-under score from the combination of Harrison Crowe and Hayden Hopewell to sit in a share of 11th.

Playing in the afternoon at Golf de Saint-Nom-La-Breteche, 2022 Japan Amateur Champion Kohei Okada shot a five-under 67 with six birdies and Taiga Semikawa, fuelled by a six-under front nine, had 10 birdies to pass the morning wave leaders. Keita Nakajima, the two-time Mark H. McCormack medal winner as the No.1 player in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, shot a non-counting 72.

Also at Golf de Saint-Nom-La-Breteche, Spain's David Puig shot a six-under 66 and Josele Ballester added a two-under 70. Germany's...