Nagarkoti shot even-par 70 while Royal Nepal Golf Club (RNGC) pro Sharma and Tribhuvan Army Offices Golf Club player Lama were one stroke behind at one-over 71. Sanjeev Bahadur Nepali was further two strokes behind at fourth with a card of three-over 73 while Jayaram Shrestha, Dhana Thapa and Rabi Khadka were in a group of three sharing fifth place at four-over 74.

Tham Bahadur Rai, Rame Magar and Ramesh Adhikari were tied at eighth with an identical card of five-over 75. Sachin Bhattarai and Dinesh Prajapati shared the 11th place after carding six-over 76 while Nepal No 1 and defending champion Shivaram Shrestha was languishing at 13th place, tied with Ramesh Nagarkoti and Bikash Adhikari at seven-over 77.

Dhruba KC was disqualified for a breach of rule during the course of the play. KC had carded nine-over 79.

Nagarkoti, who is using a changed name in the tournament despite previously known as Umesh, carded two-over 37 on the front nine and two-under 33 on the back nine. He made a poor start to his round with a bogey on the first hole before dropping two strokes on the third. Nagarkoti earned a shot on the seventh hole to finish the front nine at 37. On his way back, he sank back-to-back birdies on the 10th and 11th holes. He made a bogey on the 13th, sank a birdie on the 15th and saved pars thereafter to round up for the day at even-par 70.

The Eastern Open champion Lama carded two-over 37 on the front nine and one-under 34 on the back nine, while Sharma played one-over 36 on the front nine and even-par 35 on the back nine to stay close to the leader. Defending champion Shrestha had a disastrous first nine of six-over 41 but restored some pride by completing the round with one-over 36 in the back nine.

Sukra Bahadur Rai opened up a two-stroke lead over Tanka Bahadur Karki in the Amateur category. Rai shot six-over 76 while Karki carded eight-over 78. Mithun Rai and Sonam Bhujel shot 80.  In all, 29 professional and 18 amateur golfers are in fray for the 54-hole championship organised by Nepal Professional Golfers Association. Top three pros will receive Rs 95,000, Rs 60,000, Rs 44,000 respectively in the Rs 5,15,000 cash-prize event. Other pros finishing in the top 21 are also assured of their share of cash prizes.