Sports
Amateur Karki in 4-way mix for lead
Amateur golfer Tanka Bahadur Karki was in a four-way tie for lead in a congested leaderboard after the third round of the Surya Nepal NPGA Tour Championship at the par-72 Gokarna Golf Course on Wednesday.Amateur golfer Tanka Bahadur Karki was in a four-way tie for lead in a congested leaderboard after the third round of the Surya Nepal NPGA Tour Championship at the par-72 Gokarna Golf Course on Wednesday.
Karki was joined on top by Nepal No 1 Shivaram Shrestha, Dhana Bahadur Thapa and Bhuwan Nagarkoti at the ninth event of the Surya Nepal Golf Tour 2017-18. Karki carded two-under 70, defending champion Shrestha shot six-under 66 and Thapa carded two-under 70 for , while Dhana and Tanka carded two-under 70 for an identical cards of at two-under 214 overall.
Purna Sharma, who carded a 73, was in fifth at one-under 215, while Tashi Tsering, who shot two-under 70, was sixth at 216. Deepak Acharya (72), Rame Magar (74) and Rabi Khadka (73) are tied for seventh at one-over 217, while Surya Prasad Sharma (75) was in 10th position at 218. Ram Krishna Shrestha was in 11th at three-over 219, one stroke ahead of amateur Sukra Bahadur Rai. Dinesh Prajapati was tied for 13th with amateur Subash Tamang at 221, while Jayaram Shrestha and Ramesh Nagarkoti shared the 15th place at six-over 222.
Karki shot two-under 34 on the front nine and even-par 36 on the back nine. His sank birdies on the sixth and seventh holes in his front nine. On the back nine, Karki had bogeys on the 12th and 14th against birdies on the 13th and 18th holes. The top-ranked pro Shrestha shot three-under 33 on both the halves. He sank birdies on the first, second and third holes to add to more shots on the 11th, 15th and 18th holes in his bogey-free card.
Thapa carded two-under 34 on the front nine and even-par 36 on the back nine. He sank birdies on the first and third holes in his front card. Thapa had bogeys on the 11th and 14th against birdies on the 12th and 17th holes. Another co-leader Nagarkoti played even-par 36 on the front nine and two-over 38 on the back nine. He dropped a shot on the first hole but sank a birdie on the third. On the back nine, he dropped shots on the 1th, 15th and 18th holes against a birdie on the 12th.
Sharma carded even-par 36 on the front nine and one-over 37 on the back nine, while Tashi shot one-under 35 on both halves.
In all, 22 pros and eight amateurs made the cut for the final two rounds from the total 60 participants over the first two rounds. The tournament offers Rs 630,000 in total prize money. The champion will earn Rs 115,000, the runner-up will get Rs 74,000 and the third-placed pro will earn Rs 53,000. Other pros to make the final two rounds will also earn their share of cash prizes.