Shrestha defeated defending champion Ram Thapa 8/7 (eight up with seven holes remaining) in the final of the ninth event under the Surya Nepal Golf Tour 2011-12.[break]
Thapa had defeated Shrestha in the semifinal of the last edition of the tournament.
Out of 29 matches, Shrestha won 13 and 11 matches were halved as he bagged Rs 50,000 along with the trophy.
Thapa suffered consecutive bogeys on the first two holes and Shrestha was 2-up. Thapa cut the lead short as Shrestha shot a bogey on the third hole. On the fifth and seventh holes, Thapa shot OB (out of boundary) and gave up the matches but a birdie on the sixth hole helped him to cut short the lead. However, Shrestha hit a birdie on the 9th hole to go 3-up.
The scores remained the same after the completion of the 18 holes as both the players won two holes each. Thapa won the hole No 11 and 15 as Shrestha suffered bogeys on them. Shrestha won the 13th and 16th holes. Shrestha shot eagle on the 13th hole while Thapa picked the ball on the 16th.
Shrestha then won the 20th hole to go 4-up before Thapa bounced back on the next hole to cut the lead back to three. The players shared the next three holes before Shrestha won five straight holes from 25th to complete an easy victory.
"I was confident enough about winning the final as it was 36-hole play, where we get more chances to make comeback. However, I was not thinking about easy victory but as Ram (dai) suffered errors on the later half, it turned out to be easy one," said Shrestha.
"On the other hand, I was lucky from the very first hole. I had almost shot OB but the ball hit a tree and returned on the fair and I didn´t have to look back after the incident," he added.
Runner-up Thapa received Rs 30,000. "As the final was postponed by a day, I could not catch up to my rhythm. I was unlucky today (Thursday) as ball landed in a divot most of the time," said Thapa. He described match on the 16th hole as a turning point. "He was 2-up and I had a chance to cut it short on the 16th hole but I shot on hazard to hazard," he added.
In the 18-hole third-place match, Surya Sharma and Rabi Khadka won three holes each to take the turn with scores level. However, Sharma won the 10th, 11th and 12th to go 3-up, while both the players shared the next two holes and Sharma won the 15th to claim the third position.
Sharma got Rs 22,000 while Khadka received Rs 18,000. The four losing quarterfinalists received Rs 8,000 each, while the eight pros, who lost in the first round got Rs 5,000 each. Top 16 pros -- based on the Order of Merit 2010-11 -- took part in the ninth event of the season.
Nepal PGA President Rabindra Man Shrestha and RNGC President Prachanda Bahadur Shrestha gave away prizes to the winners.
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