Pokhara, February 9

Nepal No 1 pro Shivaram Shrestha carded three-over 68 and moved to the top of the leaderboard after the second round of the Surya Nepal Western Open here at the Himalayan Golf Course today.

Shrestha, who won the previous two events under the Surya Nepal Golf Tour 2016-17, closed in on the third straight title after posting the 36-hole score of three-under 137 to take a four-shot lead.

Defending champion Dhana Thapa is second at three-under 137 after he shot one-over 71.

Shrestha took the turn at even-par 35 before carding a three-under 32 on the latter half. On front nine, he carded birdies on third and ninth holes and faces bogeys on fifth and eighth. On the back nine, Shrestha carded four birdies on 10th, 12th, 15th and 17th holes before dropping a shot on the final hole.

Defending champion Thapa scored even-par 35 on the front nine and added one-over 36 on the back nine. He carded a birdie on fifth hole and dropped a shot on the next hole.

On the back nine, Thapa shot birdies on the 10th and 15th holes but faced a bogey on 16th hole and suffered a double-bogey on 18th hole.

Nagarkoti scored a two-over 37 on the front nine that included a birdie on the fourth hole against bogeys on the third, eighth and ninth. On the back nine, Nagarkoti carded birdies on the 10th and 15thbholes but dropped shots on the 12th and 13th holes for even-par 35.

Bhuwan Nagarkoti of Gokarna Golf Club is third at two-over 142 after carding a 72. Sanjay Lama carded two-under 68 to move up to fourth with the total score of three-over 143.

Deepak Magar (70) is fifth at four-over 144, followed by local pro Bhu Bahadur Gurung, who shot second straight 73. Overnight leader Rabi Khadka slipped to eighth after he faltered to eight-over 78 at the total score of seven-over 147.

The cut was applied at 16-over 166 with 22 pros and six amateurs making it to the final round. Surya Prasad Sharma, Jayyaram Shrestha, Back Bhadra Rai, Pashupati Sharma, Yelamber Singh Adhikari, Rame Magar, Sanjeev Bahadur Nepali, Pradeep Kumar Lama, Bhuwan Kumar Rokka, Ramesh Nagarkoti, Bikash Adhikari, Sachin Prasad Bhattarai, Dal Lama, Dinesh Nagarkoti and Rajendra Singh Pradhan were among the pros who made the cut.

In Amateur section, Kamal Tamang carded three-over 73 to stay at the top with the total score of seven-over 147. Mithun Rai (79) and Yubraj Bhujel (77) are eight shots behind Tamang at 15-over 155.

A total of 41 golfers 28 pros and 13 amateurs are taking part in the tournament organized by Nepal Professional Golfers Association under the sponsorship of Surya Nepal Pvt Ltd. The total cash purse of the tournament is Rs 600,000. The top three pros will receive Rs 110,000, Rs 70,000 and Rs 50,000 respectively.