Kathmandu, March 27

Top professional golfer Shivaram Shrestha will be looking for the fifth straight crown when the Surya Nepal Kathmandu Open tees off here at the Royal Nepal Golf Club on Tuesday.

Shrestha has won all four previous events of the Surya Nepal Golf Tour 2016-17 and the Nepal No 1 pro is targeting to add one more in his cabinet.

The fifth event of the season will be played over 72 holes with a total of 30 golfers — 29 pros and 11 amateurs — vying for the title of the new event added from this season. The cut will be applied after the second round with top 21 pros making it to the money-making final two rounds along with at least six amateurs.

“The playing condition of the course has been tweaked up for the tournament and most of the participants played a practice round on the course to acclimatise with the conditions of the course today,” said the Nepal PGA in a release. The event carries a total purse of Rs 500,000 and the top three pros will receive Rs 85,000, Rs 58,000 and Rs 45,000 respectively. Others in top 21 will also receive their share of cash prizes.

Along with top-ranked Shrestha, other players in contention will be Bhuwan Nagarkoti, Rabi Khadka, Sanjay Lama and Ram Thapa. Likewise, Tenzing Tsering, Sukra Bahadur Rai, Tanka Bahadur Karki, Shiva Kumar Majhi and Mithun Rai are among the top amateurs vying for the trophy.

Nepal PGA President Rabindra Man Shrestha said the association was delighted and grateful to Surya Nepal Pvt Ltd for adding the new event in the tour. “We are delighted and thankful to the sponsor for adding this new event. Professionals and amateur golfers are getting more opportunity to compete and I expect the scoring to be low this week,” said Shrestha, who is also the president of RNGC.