His effort was enough to help his team bag the top spot in the pro-am competition. The other members of the team were Tsultrim Lama, Tashi Sherpa and Madan Gurung after teams were formed in a draw of lots from 10 best professional cards and thirty best amateur cards.
Local hope, Shiva Ram Shrestha, who has impressed everyone with the growth in his game over the last couple of years, looks set to shoulder the weight of expectations. A round of six-under today from Shrestha, perhaps, gave an indication of what to expect from him this year. Despite his effort, Shrestha’s team, which comprised of Phimso Lama, Deepak Rajbhandary and Indra Lamichanne had to be satisfied with a second-place finish. The team of Chiragh Kumar (pro), Prem Sachdev, Kesang Lama and Kanchan Basnyat came third.
The real action gets underway on Wednesday and all eyes will be on the stellar field. Beating the international trend, this year the tournament sees an increase of 25 per cent in the prize money with Rs 2.5 million on offer. Defending champion Shamim Khan makes a return to the city in search of back-to-back wins but he will be given tough competition from the rest of the field.
Some of the other prominent names in the fray include the top player from Bangladesh, Siddikur Rahman and Sri Lanka’s best Anura Rohana along with a host of other talented professionals from India.
The highest ranked amateurs from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and India along with Nepal’s top amateur, Rupak Acharya will slug it out for the rights of the top amateur in the field over the period of four days. Md Jamal Hossain Mollah from Bangladesh, who is taking part as the top amateur from his country will also look to make an impact on the main leaderboard as he already has a two-year exemption on the Indian tour with a win he registered over the pros in Dhaka earlier in the year.
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