Surya Nepal Premier Golf Championship, the final and eighth event of the Surya Nepal Golf Tour 2022-2023, will tee off on Tuesday at the Gokarna Golf Club in Kathmandu.

The 72-hole event will be played for four days from June 6 to 9, said Nepal Professional Golf Association (NPGA) general secretary Deepak Acharya at a press conference on Monday. Altogether, 41 professionals along with nine amateur golfers will compete in the event.

Cut will be applied after two days and only top 21 pros and ties along with top six amateurs will be eligible for the final two rounds.

The outcome of the event will also determine the rankings of the pro golfers for next season. Nepal number one Sukra Bahadur Rai is behind Bhuwan Nagarkoti on the list of highest prize money earners this season. While Nagarkoti has earned Rs513,500 from the last seven tour events, Rai has bagged a cash prize amounting to Rs494,000 from five tours.

Rai had claimed trophies in Surya Nepal Eastern Open, Western Open and Central Open while Nagarkoti was the winner of Surya Nepal Kathmandu Open and Surya Nepal Challenge, among pros. The highest earner at the end of the tour will be crowned Nepal Number 1 for the next season.

The final event of the tour carries a purse of Rs1.52 million, almost double that of any of the last seven tour prizes. The champion will walk away with a purse of Rs270,000 and the runners-up will get Rs170,000. The third place finisher will earn Rs120,00. All pros inside the top 21 rankings will have a share in the cash prizes.

The top pros are expected to face tough challenges from amateur Subash Tamang, the twin gold medalist of the 2019 South Asian Games (SAG), and Sadbhav Acharya. The duos were the winners of the last two tour events.

NPGA president Rabindra Man Shrestha said that they were expecting an exciting tournament as the pros faced stiff challenges from amateurs in the last two tours. “We were able to conduct eight tour events in the season despite the challenging situation,” he said.

The event will conclude with a pro-am championship on Saturday.