Anura & team clinch Pro-Am crown

Kathmandu, June 3:

Sri Lankan pro Anura Rohana led his team to victory in the Standard Chartered Pro-Am of the Surya Nepal Masters 2008, while local lad and strong contender for the main tournament, Shiva Ram Shreshta warmed up with a fine 8-under 64 here at the Le Meridien Gokarna Forest Golf Resort and Spa today.

In a unique format where the top 10 professionals and top 30 amateurs were drawn to form 10 teams, Anura was paired with Raghav Kheria, JM Lee and Kanchan Basnet as their team’s total swelled to 155. Former Indian Open winner Vijay Kumar, drawn along with Lobsang Tashi, Lt Gen KNS Thapa and Gopal Gurung, accumulated 151 points to finish second.

Shiva Ram’s team of Tashi Sherpa, Prasanna Upreti, Robin Rana finished third with 150 points while the team of pro Ranjit Singh and amateurs Raj Pradhan, Maj MB Limbu and Purna B Rai finished fourth at 148 points. The top three pros earned Rs 4,800 Rs 3,200 and Rs 1,600 respectively.

Dil Gurung won the ‘Best Individual Score Nett’ with 42 points while Tashi Ghale emerged as the ‘Best Individual Score Gross’ with 37 points. In the overall spot prize categories, HK Gorsia won the Straightest Drive on Hole No 18 while Wangchen Dhondu emerged the golfer Closest to the Pin on Hole No 10.

The Closest to Pin award on Hole No 16 went to Bal Krishna Gurung. All the winners received gift vouchers from John Player.

In the most interesting dual amongst the professional and the amateurs, Gurbaaz Mann won the Longest Drive while Shiva Ram won the Bunker Play award in the professional category while Gopal Chitrakar and Suman Sachdev were the winners in the amateur category respectively.

The main event Surya Nepal Masters will begin on Wednesday with as many as 105 players teeing off for the prize money of Rs 2 million. The International Amateur Championship also tees off on Wednesday with five national teams — India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal ‘A’ and Nepal ‘B’ — in fray.