{"id":17920,"date":"2026-04-04T15:00:43","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T15:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/2026\/04\/04\/shabbir-levels-matloob-j-a-zaman-final\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T15:00:43","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T15:00:43","slug":"shabbir-levels-matloob-j-a-zaman-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/2026\/04\/04\/shabbir-levels-matloob-j-a-zaman-final\/","title":{"rendered":"Shabbir Levels With Matloob Ahead of J A Zaman Final"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Day three at Lahore Gymkhana produced a dramatic swing as <strong>Shabbir Iqbal<\/strong> erased a five-shot deficit to draw level with <strong>Muhammad Matloob<\/strong> in the 12th J A Zaman Memorial Open, setting the stage for a tense final-round duel.<\/p>\n<p>Matloob began the round with a comfortable lead, but Shabbir mounted an inspired comeback, opening with four consecutive birdies on the front nine to quickly close the gap. A three-putt bogey on the ninth briefly halted his momentum, yet he kept up relentless pressure through the back nine.<\/p>\n<p>The decisive stretch arrived at the 16th when Matloob\u2019s tee shot went awry and Shabbir converted the opportunity with a birdie while Matloob made par, bringing both men level at <em>12-under<\/em> on a 204 aggregate. Shabbir\u2019s superb 66 was the lowest round of the day and put him squarely in contention for a record-extending seventh title.<\/p>\n<p>Matloob answered like a champion with a crucial birdie at 17 to reclaim the lead, but the final hole produced more drama when his tee shot found the water. Shabbir held his nerve for a composed par, and Matloob executed an impressive recovery to salvage his score, leaving the pair tied atop the leaderboard.<\/p>\n<p>Karachi\u2019s <strong>Muhammad Zubair<\/strong> sits third at an aggregate of 211 (<em>-3<\/em>), followed by <strong>Muhammad Azam<\/strong> on 213, with a chasing group that includes <strong>Shahzeb Jahan<\/strong>, <strong>Muhammad Alam<\/strong>, <strong>Muhammad Saqib<\/strong> and <strong>Minhaj Maqsood<\/strong>. With both leaders showing elite shot-making and consistent putting, the J A Zaman final round promises a riveting head-to-head finish.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Shabbir Iqbal rallied to draw level with Muhammad Matloob at the J A Zaman, both on 12-under, setting up a dramatic final-round duel in Lahore.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":17919,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17920"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17920\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}