KATHMANDU: The 16th Surya Nepal Masters is all set to tee off here at the Gokarna Golf Club.

The second event under the Surya Nepal Golf Tour 2009-10 will begin with the Standard Chartered Pro-Am event on Tuesday. A total of 120 golfers — 30 professionals including top 10 local pros and 90 amateurs — will rub their shoulders in the Pro-Am.

While the pros take the event as a warm up, it would be a great learning experience for the amateurs playing along side the top pros. Top 10 pro scores and top 30 amateur scores will be drawn to declare the winning team.

The main event, four-day pro tournament, will tee off on Wednesday. In all, 120 golfers including 20 amateur golfers will take part in the tournament which will be played over the 72 holes.

Top golfers from India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Nepal will compete for the trophy. While Indian pros dominate the field in terms of numbers, the local pros could equally be tough opponents. Local pro Deepak Thapa Magar’s win in 2007 have proved that the Nepali pros have the talent to compete against some of the best of the South Asian region.

Apart from Thapa Magar, the likes of Shiva Ram Shrestha, Deepak Acharya, Ramesh Nagarkoti, Rabi Khadka and Pashupati Sharma are all equally capable of giving a tough fight. Shiva Ram — who qualified for the Indian Tour for the second straight year — have signalled what he is capable of after shooting an eight-under 64 during practice-round on Sunday, while Acharya is equally confident after playing a round of three-under 69 during practice today.

Meanwhile, defending champion Shamim Khan will be setting an eye to become the first golfer to win back-to-back Surya Nepal titles.

The field has been bolstered with the presence of top Indian pros Ashok Kumar, Vijay Kumar and Feroze Ali along with Asian Tour card holders Md Siddukur Rahman of Bangladesh, Malaysian Sasidaran, Sri Lankan Anura Rohana and Australian Anthony Paul Choat.

This year the organisers, Surya Nepal Pvt Ltd, has increased the prize money by 25 per cent to Rs 2.5 million. Top three pros will receive Rs 405,000, Rs 280,000 and Rs 157,500 respectively. Only top 50 pros and nine amateurs will make the cut after the completion of second round.

Alongside the main tournament, an international amateur event will also be held with a top player each from five countries — Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Bhutan.

Meanwhile, the organisers held Media Clinic on the eve of the tournament today. Gokarna Pros Deepak Acharya and Pashupati Sharma along with RNGC duo of Deepak Thapa Magar and Ramesh Nagarkoti conducted the clinic for the media persons. In the putting competition held during the clinic, the team of Hemanta Kafle and Govinda Regmi emerged victorious over Narayan Upadhyay and Pramod Joshi in playoff. The teams of Mahesh Acharya/Raju Ghising and Chetan Pandey/Bal Mukunda Nepal were tied third. Surya Nepal Pvt Ltd Marketing Manager Abhijeet Chakraborty gave away the John Players gift hampers to the winners.