KATHMANDU, Jan 11: Jayaram Shrestha took sole lead after the second round of Surya Nepal Challenge golf tournament on Wednesday with total of seven-under 129 at the par-68 Royal Nepal Golf Club in the capital on Wednesday.
Jayaram carded five-under 63 on the second day to climb on top of the leader board from third position. He finished the front nine with one-under 33 and back nine with four-under 30.
Sanjay Lama stood second with total of six-under 130 after the second day's score of five-under 63. Nepal number one pro Shivaram Shrestha jointly shared third position along with overnight leader Bhuwan Nagarkoti with total score of two-under 134. Shivaram carded two-under 66 and Bhuwan finished the day with one-over 69.
Dhana Bahadur Thapa (72) stands fifth at one-over 137 while Rame Magar (69) is in sixth position with total of two-over 138. Bhuwan and Dhana were the joint overnight leaders at three-under 65.
Shrestha takes lead on opening round
Three golfers including Ram Krishna Shrestha (73), Rabi Khadka (69) and Bikash Adhikari (65) shared joint seventh position at four-over 140. Chuda Bahadur Bhandari (72) stands tenth at six-over 142.
Leader Jayaram carded birdied on the fourth hole and saved pars at the remaining holes in the first half. In the later half, he carded birdies on the 10th, 13th, 15th and 18th holes.
Sanjay took the turn at four-under 30 after saving shots on the first, second, fourth and ninth holes. On the back nine he played one-under 33 with birdies on the 10th, 13th and 18th holes against a double bogey on par-four 11th hole.
A total of 22 professional golfers survived the cut applied at 17-over 153. Deepak Magar, Pradeep Kumar Lama, Pashupati Sharma, Surya Prasad Sharma, Prasanna Upreti, Dipendra Rayamajhi, Prabhat Kumar Rajbahak, Sachin Prasad Bhattarai, Ashish Pariyar, Krishna Man Rajbahak, Shiva Ram Paudel and Bal Bhadra Rai made it to the final two rounds.
Six amateur golfers also made it to the final rounds. Mithun Rai leads the amateur section with five-over 141. He carded one-over 69 to take three-stroke lead over Shiva Kumar Majhi and overnight leader Santosh Rokka tied at 144. Similarly, Jiwan Rai, Phuntsok N Lama and Rohit Acharya are the other amateur golfers who made the cut.
