Kathmandu, March 20:

Deepak Acharya played a horrible golf, but still won the Nepal PGA Classic in sudden death play-off against Sabin Sapkota here at the RNG C today.

Acharya, who had a five-stroke lead over Sapkota and eight-stroke over Deepak Thapa Magar, played a disastrous round of nine-over 76 and Sapkota, who carded four-over 71, caught him for a tie after the three rounds of play. Thapa Magar also had a chance to force a three-way play-off, but missed a par-putt at the 18th to finish third.

In the play-off at par-4 Hole No 1, Sabin teed off into the jungle and dropped one shot to hand title to Acharya. Acharya won Rs 25,000 of the total purse of Rs 100,000, while Sapkota pocketed Rs 15,000.

Acharya started with three straight bogies, before briefly finding the rhythm with birdies in fourth and fifth holes, but his clubs had other things to say. He bogeyed the par-3 sixth, had a triple-bogey in the seventh before firing two more bogeys in the last two holes of the front nine, finishing with seven-over 33. On the back nine, he had a birdie, a bogey and a double bogey for the two over 34.

Sapkota carded four-over 71 and managed a play-off before going down in sudden death. He narrowed the lead to one stroke with three-over 33 in the front nine that included four bogeys and a lone birdie. Sapkota then levelled the scores with an eagle in the par-5 10th, where Acharya had a birdie, and took one-stroke lead after Acharya dropped two shots in the next hole. But things went wrong after 13th hole. Acharya managed par-putts at Hole No 13 and 14 where Sapkota carded bogeys, letting Acharya take one-shot lead. Acharya carded a bogey on 16th to allow Sapkota catch him and force a play-off.

The three-day 54-hole event was sponsored by Pilot golfers — Deepak Thapaliya, Sharad Thapaliya and RP Dhakal of Nepal Airlines — to help golfers get some exposure before the forthcoming Surya Nepal Masters. The first round was held at Tribhuvan Army Officers’ Golf Club, while the second was played at Le Meridien Gokarna Forest Golf Resort & Spa.

President of Nepal Golf Association Pradeep Kumar Shrestha, Maj NK Rai of RNGC and amateur golfer and one of the sponsors Thapaliya gave away cash prizes to the top 13 golfers, among the 17 participants.