Eastern Open Golf, the third tournament under Surya Nepal Golf Tour of this season, has started in Dharan on Wednesday. Neeraj Tamang led the way with a course record 8-under 62 on the first day.

Domestic pro Neeraj has broken the record of 7 under 63 made by Shukra Bahadur Rai in 2022-23 season. He is 4 strokes behind Dhan Bahadur Thapa.

Dhan is tied for second with a score of 4-under 66 at the 70-par Dharan Golf Club in Dharan. Bhuvankumar Rocca finished third with a 3-under 67. Professional Yuvraj Bhujel and Bishnu Prasad Sharma along with amateur Sundar Rai took joint fourth place. With a score of 1 under 69, Nepal's number one golfer Bhuvan Nagarkoti, Balabhadra Rai and amateur Jitendra Rai are joint seventh. With a score of 1 over 71, Rame Magar, Sunil KC, Ravi Khadka, Ramesh Adhikari and amateur Suresh Tamang are joint tenth.

Dharan pro Niraj finished the front nine at 4 under 32 while posting a superb score card of bogey free 8 under 62. He made birdies on the third, fifth, sixth and ninth holes. He had an eagle success on the par-5 12th hole and saved shots on the 15th and 18th holes.

He finished the back nine in 4-under 30. Dhan bogeyed the second hole but birdied the third, eighth and ninth holes to finish at 2-under 34 on the front nine. After this, he birdied the 12th, 16th and 18th holes against a bogey on the 13th hole to complete the back nine at 2-under 30.

Third-placed Bhuvan shot 2-under 34 on the front nine and 1-under 33 on the back nine. He shot a total of 5 birdies and 2 bogeys. There is a total of 882,000 prize money in the 54-hole tournament. The winner will get 150,000, the second runner-up will get 100,000 and the third runner-up will get 75,000.