Kathmandu, January 17 Nepal No 1 pro Shivaram Shrestha defeated second-seed Bhuwan Nagarkoti 2&1 to win the title of the Surya Nepal NPGA Match Play here at the Royal Nepal Golf Club today. The final match of the fourth event under the Surya Nepal Golf Tour 2018-19 was decided on the 35th hole after both the players settled for par putt, with Shrestha 2-up with one hole remaining. The final was played over 36 holes. The players were level after the first nine holes, while Shrestha opened up three-hole lead after the completion of 18 holes. Nagarkoti cut the deficit to two after 27 holes, while the pros were level after 32 holes. Shrestha then produced the moment of brilliance when he holed it out from bunker to take the lead on the 33rd and carded a birdie from 12 feet to go 2-up with three holes remaining. Shrestha sealed the victory with a par putt from less than five feet on the 35th hole after Nagarkoti had already saved par. The title was 44th overall for Shrestha and third of the season. He finished first among pros in the Surya Nepal Eastern Open in December last year in Dharan where amateur player Sukra Bahadur Rai claimed the title. With the title, Shrestha earned Rs 70,000, while Nagarkoti settled for Rs 40,000. Dinesh Prajapati defeated Rame Magar 2&1 in the third-place match and he earned Rs 28,000. Magar got Rs 20,000. Four losing quarter-finalists, Deepak Magar, Jayaram Shrestha, Bhuwan Kumar Rokka and Bal Bhadra Rai received Rs 11,000 apiece, while the eight pros who lost in first round — Deepak Acharya, Dhana Bahadur Thapa, Sanjay Lama, Rabi Khadka, Pashupati Sharma, Pradeep Kumar Lama, Bikash Adhikari and Surya Prasad Sharma — got Rs 6,000 each. Top 16 pros in last year’s Order of Merit participated in the tournament organised by Nepal PGA under the sponsorship of Surya Nepal Pvt Ltd. Nepal PGA President Rabindra Man Shrestha and Advisor Ghana Shyam Thapa handed over the prizes to the winners. The fifth event under the Tour, the Surya Nepal Western Open will be played at the Himalaya Golf Course in Pokhara later this month.