DHARAN: Rabi Khadka carded two-over 72 to take one-stroke lead after the first day of the Surya Nepal Eastern Open here today.

Top pro Shiva Ram Shrestha, local pro Deo Raj Pakhrin and RNGC amateur Ramesh Adhikari are joint second with three-over 73 each. Defending champion Deepak Thapa Magar, Pashupati Sharma and Tham Bahadur Rai are joint fifth at four-over 74, while Sanjay Lama and Sabin Sapkota are tied for eighth with five-over 75. Dhana Thapa, Deepak Neupane, Rajan Thapa and Krishna Hari Mizar are one stroke further back at 76, whereas Deepak Acharya, Ram Thapa and Krishna Man Rajbahak carded seven-over 77.

Rabi Khadka started with a bogey after a poor chip shot and two-putted from the edge of the green. But he recovered to finish the front nine at two-under 33 that included four birdies on the second, fifth, sixth and eighth and two bogeys on the first and seventh.

On the back nine, Rabi hit bogeys on the 12th and 14th before sinking a birdie on the 17th. The last hole saw Rabi drop two shots. “Overall I played well. Everything was going as planned until the last hole,” said Khadka. On the 18th hole, Rabi ended up hitting into the bush despite having a good tee-shot that landed just 40 yards away from the green. He needed one more shot to take the ball into the greens and three-putted for a double bogey.

Shiva Ram had a disastrous start as he had a double bogey on the first hole before dropping another shot on the third. After saving pars on the next two holes, he carded birdies on the sixth and eighth before struggling for a double bogey on the ninth and took a turn at three-over 38. Shiva Ram carded two birdies and as many bogeys on his back nine score of even-par 35.

Deo Raj carded birdies on the second, third and sixth holes, while he dropped two shots on the fourth hole for the front nine score of one-under 34. On the back nine, he had bogeys on the 10th, 11th, 14th, 15th, 17th and 18th backed by a lone birdie on the 13th for four-over 39. Thapa Magar shot four bogeys and a birdie for the front nine score of three-over 38, while his back nine of one-over 36 included two bogeys and a birdie.

Ramesh Adhikari led the amateur field with the score of three-over 73, while Bhuwan Pudasaini was distant second at nine-over 79. Rajesh Rai was at the third position with the score of 11-over 81. Local amateur Sukra Rai was disqualified from the tournament for placing the ball at the wrong position, while Rabindra Man Shrestha, who is also the president of Nepal PGA, withdrew due to poor health.