KATHMANDU: Shiva Ram Shrestha of Nepal opened the Asia Pacific Panasonic Open first round with a score of nine-over 80 at the 71-par Joyo Country Club in Kyoto, Japan.

The Nepal No 1 professional golfer Shrestha finished the day at tied 124th position. He began the round with successive pars on the first two holes and bogeyed the par-4 third hole. He had another bogey on the pr-5 fifth hole and a double bogey in the sixth. Shrestha again dropped a shot on the par-4 seventh before saving shots on the last two holes to take a turn at five-over 41. On the back nine, he had a doubled bogey on the par-4 12th before dropping a shot each on the par-5 14th and 18th for four-over 39. In all, Shrestha had 11 par putts, five bogeys and two double bogeys in the birdie-less round. A total of 131 players are taking part in the championship.

Bing Lam Chih of Singapore and Tetsuya Haraguchi of Japan shared the lead with five-under 66, while four players — Seung-Yul Noh, Tomohiro Kondo, Katsumasa Miyamoto and Yuji Igarashi — are tied for third at four-under 67. In amateur section, Nepal No 1 amateur player from Nepal, Rupak Acharya, pulled out on the eve of the tournament due to technical reason.