Bahrain’s al-Afnan leads Qatar Open

Bahrain’s Hamad Mubarak al-Afnan shot a two over-par 74 to take a one shot lead over the USA’s Joseph Dance into the third and final round of the 26th Qatar Open Amateur Golf Championship at Doha Golf Club yesterday.Al-Afnan, a multiple winner of the tournament, totaled 147 after two rounds in the 54-hole event in which none of the 120 odd golfers managed to beat par so far. Dance, who had a four over par score of 76 on day one, just about saved par with a 72 yesterday to aggregate 148, while Bahrain’s Saleh Ali was in third spot on 149 along with Jean-Michel Hall and William Shucksmith of Britain.The tournament lived up to its amateur status what with seven players making the cut despite each of them shooting 30 over par 174 over the two rounds. By a strange coincidence six of the seven were Bahrainis.The best placed Qatari is Ghanim al-Kuwari, who is on seventh spot with a total of  eight over par 152.The winner of the tournament gets to play in the prestigious European Tour Qatar Masters scheduled for the first week of February.