Bhuwan Nagarkoti carded two-under 68 to take the second round lead in the Surya Nepal Western Open golf tournament at the par-70 Himalayan Golf Course in Pokhara on Thursday.

The Gokarna Golf Club pro goes into the third round one stroke ahead of overnight leader and Nepal No 1 Shivaram Shrestha of Royal Nepal Golf Course (RNGC), who shot a disappointing three-over 73 for a total of two-under 138. Shrestha had carded five-under 65 in the first round on Wednesday. Army Club pros Dhana Bahadur Thapa (72) and Sanjay Lama (68) were joint third at one-under 139 in the fourth event under the Surya Nepal Golf Tour 2015-16.

Surya Prasad Sharma was alone at fifth at three-over 143 after playing even-par 70. Three pros Bhu Bahadur Gurung (72), Rabi Khadka (71) and Pashupati Sharma (75) were tied for sixth at 146. Rame Magar, who played five-over 75, is ninth at nine-over 149, while Deepak Thapa Magar (75) was at 151. Jayaram Shrestha, Pradeep Kumar Lama and Sanjeev Bahadur Nepali share the 11th position at 153. Prabhat Kumar Rajbahak, Bikash Adhikari, Dinesh Prajapati, Sabin Sapkota, Ramesh Nagarkoti, Ramesh Adhikari, Gopal Nagarkoti and Chuda Bahadur Bhandari are the other pros who survived the cut.

Nagarkoti carded one-over 36 in his front nine but improved on his second nine with three-under 32. He dropped shots on the second and sixth holes but earned a shot with a birdie on the ninth. On the back nine, Nagarkoti sank birdies on the 10th, 16th and 17th holes.

The RNGC pro Shrestha shot one-under 35 on the front nine but faltered to four-over 39 on back nine. Shrestha opened the day with a birdie and added another shot on the sixth against a bogey on the fifth hole. On the back nine, the top-ranked golfer suffered a double bogey on the par-4 12th. He dropped another shot on the 18th against a lone birdie on the 11th. Army Club pro Thapa carded two-over 38 on the front nine and one-under 34 on the back nine, while his clubmate Lama carded one-over 36 on the front nine and three-under 32 on the back nine.

The cut was applied at 24-over 164 and 21 pros made it to the final round. Ten amateur golfers also survived the cut. Tanka Bahadur Karki carded one-under 69 to move top of the amateur category with a total card of 11-over 151. Karki was a stroke ahead of Kamal Tamang.