Kathmandu, October 9

Bhuvan Nagarkoti carded a seven-under 61 to take two-stroke lead after the first round of the Ghana Shyam’s Professional Golden Jubilee Golf Championship here at the Royal Nepal Golf Club today.

The Gokarna Golf Club pro Nagarkoti shot a total of eight birdies in the first tournament under the Surya Nepal Golf Tour 2017-18. Nepal No 1 pro Shivaram Shrestha and his elder brother Jayaram Shrestha — both from RNGC — are two strokes behind at five-under 63.

Nagarkoti carded three-under 31 on the front nine that included birdies on the first, third, fifth and eighth. His only blemish of the day came on the second hole where he faced a bogey. Nagarkoti then fired a bogey-free four-under 30 on the latter half with the help of birdies on the 10th, 13th, 14th and 18th holes.

Both the Shrestha brothers fired three-under 31 on the front nine and shot two-under 32 on back nine. While Jayaram played a bogey-free round carding birdies on the first, second, fourth, 10th and 13th holes, top pro Shivaram faced two bogeys against seven birdies. Shivaram carded birdies on the first, third, fourth, 10th, 12th, 16th and 17th holes.

Army Club pro Sanjay Lama is fourth at two-under 66, followed by RNGC pros Rame Magar (68) and Surya Prasad Sharma (69). Basanta Raj Gurung, Dinesh Prajapati and Deepak Magar shared the seventh position at two-over 70. Likewise, Krishnaman Rajbahak, Ram Krishna Shrestha and Pradeep Kumar Lama are joint 10th at 71 along with amateur Bipin Tamang.

In amateur section, Tamang is three strokes ahead of Mithun Rai, who shot a six-over 74. Prithvi Malla, Subash N Ghising and Phuntsok Lama share the third position at nine-over 77, while top female amateur golfer Pratima Sherpa faltered to 10-over 78.

A total of 39 golfers — 32 pros and seven amateurs — will take part in the 72-hole competition. Out of the total cash purse of Rs 500,000 the top three pros will receive Rs 85,000, Rs 58,000 and Rs 45,000 respectively. Others in the top 21 will also get their share of cash prizes. The tournament — the special-sanctioned event by the Nepal Professional Golfers Association — is the season opening event of the Surya Nepal Golf Tour 2017-18. Founder President of Nepal PGA Ghana Shyam Thapa is the sponsor of the tournament to mark his golden jubilee as a professional golfer.

After the completion of the professional event, a separate club-level amateur tournament will be played under the event on October 13-14. Around 100 social golfers are expected to take part in the tournament.