Kathmandu, March 23

Professional golfer Jayaram Shrestha and amateurs Rishab Acharya, Lt Col Jhalendra Bhattarai and Hari Thapa won the title of the Pilot Golfers NPGA Classic Pro-Am here at the Royal Nepal Golf Club today.

Pro Shrestha scored 39 points, while Acharya earned 46, Bhattarai had 44 and Thapa got 42 points for the total score of 171 points. The team of pro Surya Prasad Sharma (37) and amateurs Balram Chaulagai (41), Ashish Sherchan (39), and Subodh Thapa (38) finished second with 155 points.

Likewise, pro Dhana Thapa and amateurs Tahir Shah, Ang Norbu Sherpa and Maj Gen MB Karki accumulated 144 points to finish third. All four golfers in the team earned 36 points each. Mithun Rai won the closest-to-the-pin award and Shrihar SJB Rana bagged the longest drive trophy.

A total of 71 players, including 14 pros, participated in the event organised in memory of Capt Badri Krishna Shrestha. The best scoring pro was teamed up with top three amateurs to decide the winning team, while fourth, fifth and sixth amateurs were teamed up with second best professional golfer.

Likewise, amateurs finishing seventh, eighth and ninth were teamed up with the third best pro for the second runner-up team.

Army Club pro Dhana Bahadur Thapa  won the main event yesterday with a two-shot victory over Jayaram Thapa. Bhuwan Kumar Rokka finished third. In all, 30 pros and eight amateur golfers took part in the seventh event under the Surya Nepal Golf Tour 2018-19.

The tournament was sponsored by Pilot Golfers Capt Rabindra Purush Dhakal, Capt Deepak Thapaliya and Capt Vijay Pratap Singh, along with Sabita Shrestha, daughter of late Capt Shrestha. Gandaki Noodles, BB Airways, Air Arabia, and Himalayan Bank were the co-sponsors of the tournament. The 54-hole event was played at two different courses.