Kathmandu, March 16

Shivaram Shrestha and Sanjay Lama entered the final of the Surya Nepal NPGA Match Play golf tournament here at the Royal Nepal Golf Club today.

No 1 pro Shrestha survived a late onslaught from defending champion Rabi Khadka before settling for a 2&1 victory over his RNGC clubmate, while Army Club pro Lama beat Gokarna Golf Club’s Bhuwan Nagarkoti on the first extra hole in the controversial semi-final match to set the 36-hole final on Thursday.

Shrestha, who was 5-up after 12 holes, had to wait until the penultimate hole after Khadka made a late charge winning three of the four holes on the back nine. Shrestha went 3-up with a 40-foot birdie putt on the 10th hole and won two more to stretch the lead to five holes before Khadka rallied to reduce to deficit to two. Both the players made par putts from bunker that ended the match in favour of Shrestha, who has finished runner-up in the all four previous events of the season.

The another semi-final match took an ugly turn on the 17th hole after Lama accused Nagarkoti of placing the ball well ahead of the marker. Nagarkoti, who was 2-up and would have won the match with a par putt from little more than five feet, picked the ball in the presence of Marshall Ghana Shyam Thapa that handed the hole to Lama.

Furious with the incident, Nagarkoti hit the tee shot on hazard and two-putted for a bogey after Lama had made the par putt, that took the match to sudden death. On the first extra hole, Nagarkoti hit ‘Out of Bounds’ with the tee shot and Lama comfortably made the par putt to win the hole and the match. “My point is he did not play with the spirit of the game,” said Lama. “He had been placing the ball to the left and to the right of marker on other occasions also. But I did not complain as he is a friend. But on the 17th hole, he placed the ball more than two inches ahead of the marker. I found it unfair and complained,” added Lama.

Nagarkoti accused Lama of raising the issue out of the blue. “He was almost certain to lose the match and was looking for other ways after he could not beat me in the game,” said Nagarkoti. “It was a minor incident. I think everybody does so as the greens at RNGC are not in shape. As no one could give the decision, I decided to pick the ball,” he added. “That incident broke the momentum and I also lost temper. And I could not concentrate on the game,” said Nagarkoti, who will face Khadka in the third-place match on Thursday.

Earlier, Shrestha beat Rame Magar 3&2, Khadka outplayed Surya Prasad Sharma 5&4, Nagarkoti edged past Deepak Thapa Magar 1-up and Lama defeated Dhana Thapa 4&2 in the quarter-finals. Top 16 pros as per the last year’s Order of Merit took part in the fifth event under the Surya Nepal Golf Tour 2015-16. Top four pros will receive Rs 50,000, Rs 30,000, Rs 22,000 and Rs 18,000 respectively, while four losing quarter-finalists get Rs 10,000 each and eight first-round losers earn Rs 5,000 apiece.