The Ace Junior Golf League (AJGL) made its debut on Pakistan’s “Golfing Landscape” when around 100 junior golfers under the age of 18 took part in its inaugural match, which was held on October 1-2, 2022, at the Lahore Garrison Greens.
Even the most fervent hopes of Munazza Shaheen, the AJGL’s founding president, were significantly surpassed by this amount. It is important to note that the mission of the AJGL is to act as the nursery for discovering, nurturing, and eventually producing our Nation’s future golf champions.
In doing so, they hope to connect with emerging young golfers and assist them in turning their enthusiasm for the game into more advanced golfing abilities. As can be seen, this will significantly aid in the grassroots development of Pakistani golf. It is important to note that Lt Gen (Retd) Mian Muhammad Hillal Hussain has graciously agreed to serve as the organization’s Patron-in-Chief since he totally supports this audacious endeavor. His advice will undoubtedly benefit AJGL.
Munazza Shaheen was inspired by the junior golfers’ extraordinary degree of interest in the abovementioned Inaugural Match, and she made the decision to lift the bar on her goals by aspiring to take AJGL to an international level. She turned to Dr. Asma Shami, who has been her mentor in all golf-related topics and is also the Patron of AJGL, to actualize this. Fortunately, Dr. Shami had established an informal group of her counterparts in particular regional golfing nations when she was the Chairperson of Ladies Golf PGF. How to develop junior golf in each country was one of the topics that this group had been actively discussing.
Dr. Asma Shami was one of the key speakers at these meetings and made an impression on her peers with her efforts to advance junior golf. Ms. Rabea Htul, the former president of the Malaysian Ladies Golf Association, sent her an invitation to send a few junior golfers to the 22nd Sarawak International Junior Golf Premier Cup, which will be held in Miri, Malaysia, from November 29 to December 1, 2018. It should be made clear that this was a private invitation given to an ex-Chairperson by an ex-President acting in her role as the event’s planner. Munazza Shaheen was motivated to assemble a team of 13 AJGL young players, none of whom had ever competed in an international golf competition.
There were 104 junior golfers in all, representing 9 different nations in the area. Junior golfers competing in age-based divisions were welcome to enter the tournament.
- In Category A, Arooba Ali, Amina Tiwana, Jasia Tasawar, and Irtaza Hussain competed (ages 15 to 17).
- In Category B were Bushra Fatima, Ramin Amin, Daniyal Durrani, Abdullah Amir, and Wajahat Anwar (ages 13 to 14).
- Also competing in Category C were Sara Amin, Aleesa Rashid, Musa Khan, and Zalmay Amin (ages 12 and under).
- The level of competition was extremely high because the other competitors were from Chinese Taipei, India, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, Singapore, Indonesia, Brunei, and Malaysia, some of whom had zero handicaps.
The Tournament’s use of Gross rather than Net Scores was another disadvantage for our participants. The fact that our young golfers managed to achieve some noteworthy accomplishments in spite of this handicap speaks highly of them. We can all be proud that five of our 13 players made the cut at the end of the second day, in particular. These included Ramin (age 13) and Daniyal (age 14) in Cat B, Musa (age 10) in Cat C, Irtaza (age 16), and Arooba (age 17) in Cat A. It was enjoyable to watch them compete, especially 10-year-old Musa who, after being selected, bravely underwent the demanding physical requirements of the third day’s play.
Everyone’s heart went out to him. It is worth a mention that this was a remarkable achievement, especially when compared with the inability of many of our established players to make the cut in recent International Tournaments.
