Sports
Amateur golfer Karki opens up three-stroke lead
Tanka Bahadur Karki, an amateur golfer, carded a flawless five-under 67 to open up a three-stroke lead at half way stage of the Surya Nepal NPGA Tour Championship on Tuesday.Sports Bureau
Tanka Bahadur Karki, an amateur golfer, carded a flawless five-under 67 to open up a three-stroke lead at half way stage of the Surya Nepal NPGA Tour Championship on Tuesday.
Karki, who carded one-over 73 in the first round, is top of the leaderboard with a total score of four-under 140. Bhuwan Nagarkoti was three strokes behind in second after carding two-under 70 in the second round for a total score of one-under 143. Former Nepal No 1 Deepak Acharya and Dinesh Prajapati tied for third at even-par 144. Acharya shot scored one-under 71 and Prajapati carded two-over 74 at the par-72 Gokarna Golf Club. Surya Prasad Sharma and Shiva Kumar Majhi were tied for fifth at one-over 145. Sharma carded one-under 71 and Majhi shot one-over 73 on Tuesday.
The Royal Nepal Gold Club pro Rabi Khadka and amateur Bipin Tamang shared the seventh position at two-over 146. Khadka shot three-over 75 and Tamang carded even-par 72. Deepak Thapa Magar and Rame Magar were tied for ninth at three-over 147. Deepak shot even-par 72 and Rame carded one-over 73. Krishna Man Rajbahak and Bikash Adhikari were next at four-over 148. Rajbahak carded one-under 71 and Adhikari returned with four-over 76.
Karki carded three-under 33 on the front nine and two-under 34 on the back nine in his bogey-free second round on Tuesday. His front nine card included birdies on the sixth, seventh and ninth holes. On the back nine, Karki sank birdies on the 11th and 18th holes. Nagarkoti shot three-under 33 on the first nine with birdies on the third, fourth and sixth holes. On his way back, Nagarkoti sank just a birdie on the 11th against bogeys on the 10th and 16th for one-over 37 card.
Deepak Thapa Magar carded one-under 35 on the front nine with birdies on third and fourth holes against a bogey on the second. On his way back, he dropped a shot on the 16th but recovered with birdie on the last hole for even-par 36 card. First round joint leader, Prajapati shot three-over 39 on the front nine and one-under 35 on the back nine. Prajapati started with a double-bogey on the first and lost more ground by dropping shots on the third and eighth holes. His only birdie on the front nine came on the fourth hole. On the back nine, Prajapati sank birdies on 13th and 18th holes against a bogey on the 17th.
Other pros to survive the cut, which fell at 12-over, were Bal Bhadra Rai, Sanjay Lama, Jayaram Shrestha, Suman Rai, Ramesh Adhikari, Pradeep Kumar Lama, Dhana Bahadur Thapa, Sachin Bhattarai, Chuda Bahadur Bhandari and the newly turned professionals Tashi Ghale and Sanjok Moktan. In all, 42 golfers—34 pros and eight amateur-participated in the first two rounds with 21 pros and six amateurs making it to the final two rounds of the eighth event under the Surya Nepal Golf Tour 2018-19.
The tournament offers Rs 661,500 in total prize money. The champions will earn Rs 120,000 and the runner-up will get Rs 77,000.