KARACHI: Tied for the lead after the opening 18 holes, holder Ahmed Baig grabbed top spot at the Rashid D. Habib Open Golf Championship despite a patchy two-under 70 in the second round at the Karachi Golf Course on Friday.

Having opened with a sublime 65 on Thursday, Ahmedtook time to get going in the second round and while there was an uncharacteristic double-bogey, he fired five birdies to move two shots clear of Mohammad Zubair, the jointovernight leader, and Mohammad Munir.

Munir fired a 70 that featured three birdies to joinZubair, who returned an evenpar 72, on five-under 137 overall, four shots ahead of Hamza Amin (70), Talat Ijaz (72) and Mudassir Iqbal (73).

A stroke further behind on 142 are Mohammad Shehzad (70) and Mohammad Khalid (72) with Pakistan number one Shabbir Iqbal (71) finding him-self a further shot behind.

The best performance of the day came from Rehmatullah, who shot a four-under 68 that featured six birdies to move to 146.

With the cut applied at 152, the field of 103 golfers has been whittled down to 52 for the last two rounds.-Sports Reporter