Sports
Surya Nepal Challenge: Shrestha climbs on top of leaderboard
Jayaram Shrestha climbed to the top of the leaderboard with a superb five-under 63 in the second round of the Surya Nepal Challenge at the par-68 Royal Nepal Golf Club (RNGC) on Wednesday.Jayaram Shrestha climbed to the top of the leaderboard with a superb five-under 63 in the second round of the Surya Nepal Challenge at the par-68 Royal Nepal Golf Club (RNGC) on Wednesday.
Shrestha, who carded two-under 66 in the first round, was seven-under 129 going into the next two rounds. Sanjay Lama matched Shrestha with the best card of the day, his five-under 63 propelling him to second at six-under 130 total.
Nepal No 1 Shivaram Shrestha (66) and overnight joint-leader Bhuwan Nagarkoti (69) finished the second round tied for third at 134. Dhana Bahadur Thapa (72) was alone at fifth at one-over 137. Rame Magar (69) stood at sixth at 138, while Ram Krishna Shrestha (73), Rabi Khadka (69) and Bikash Adhikari (65) shared the seventh position at four-over 140. Chuda Bahadur Bhandari (72) was 10th at 142.
Shrestha carded one-under 33 in the first nine holes, his lone birdie coming on the fourth. The leader made a marked improvement in the second nine holes sinking four birdies for a four-under 30 card. Lama shot four-under 30 on the front nine with the help of four birdies, while his back nine card of one-under 33 included three birdies against a double bogey on the 11th hole.
In all 22 pros made the cut, which fell at 17-over 153, for the money-making final two rounds. Deepak Magar, Pradeep Kumar Lama, Pashupati Sharma, Surya Prasad Sharma, Prasanna Upreti, Dipendra Rayamajhi, Prabhat Kumar Rajbahak, Sachin Prasad Bhattarai, Ashish Pariyar, Krishna Man Rajbahak, Shiva Ram Paudel and Bal Bhadra Rai survived the cut.
Six amateur golfers also joined the pros in the final two rounds. Mithun Rai leads the amateur category with a total card of five-over 141 after carding one-over 69 on Wednesday. Three strokes behind Majhi was Shiva Kumar Majhi and Santosh Rokka. Majhi carded a 71 and Rokka shot 73 on Wednesday. Overnight leader Jiwan Rai, Phuntsok N Lama and Rohit Acharya were the other amateur golfers to make the cut.
Organised by the Nepal PGA, the event carries a total prize money of Rs 400,000 with the eventual champion set to earn Rs 75,000 and the runner-up Rs 46,000. Other pros to make the cut will also get their share of cash rewards.