Anura Rohana clinched the Surya Nepal Masters 2009 title with an eagle two on the final hole to win his maiden professional event. With a final round of three-under 69, he finished two shots ahead of his compatriot, Mithun Perera, who returned a card of even-par 72 to finish at ten-under 278 for the tournament. Anura became richer by RS 405,000.

Kunal Bhasin, who was in the mix of things until the leaders group made the turn, finished in sole third place, one clear of last year’s winner Shamim Khan who finished with a four-day total of six-under 282. Deepak Thapa Magar with a total of three-under 285 was the leading Nepali pro finishing tied for sixth place. Kunal walked away with a prize purse of RS 280,000 while Shamim Khan won RS 157,500 for his effort. Thapa Magar went home with RS 90,000.

In the international amateur country championship, Perera comfortably walked away with the title with Jamal Hossain Mollah finishing in second place and Nepal’s Rupak Acharya in third place.

In an elaborate prize presentation ceremony, the President of Nepal, Dr. Ram Baran Yadav felicitated the winners.

For Rohana, the four lakh prize purse (Nepali) was a just reward for four rounds of hard work. “For me more important than the eagle on the final hole was the par on the 15th. That is where I won the title,” he said.

The final scores were as follows:

276 Anura Rohana (SL) (73,65,69,69); 278 Mithun Perera (A) (SL) (68,70,68,72); 281 Kunal Bhasin (AUS) (71,72,69,69); 282 Shamim Khan (IND) (71,71,71,69); 283 Harinder Gupta (IND) (69,72,72,70); 285 Ashok Kumar (IND) (69,73,74,69), Deepak Thapa Magar (NEP) (74,71,69,71), Mandeo Pathania (IND) (74,73,66,72); 287 Siddikur Rahman (BD) (74,76,67,70); 288 Rafick Ali (IND) (74,74,70,70); 289 Chiragh Kumar (74,72,73,70); 290 Shiv Ram Shrestha (68,75,74,73); 291 Shankar Das (74,73,73,71); 292 Ram Thapa (75,73,68,76) nepalnews.com bt Apr 26 09