Colourful Opening Ceremony for the Start of the 36th CAJGC

The Jamaica Golf Association (JGA) hosted a colourful opening ceremony to mark the start of the 36^th Caribbean Amateur Junior Golf Championship (CAJGC) on Tuesday evening at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in New Kingston.

This year there are eight teams in the championship. They are Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Trinidad & Tobago and host Jamaica.

Jodi Munn-Barrow, president of the JGA who spoke at the opening ceremony welcomed the teams while saying that everything was in place for a very good championship which was postponed because of the passing of hurricane Beryl in July.

Coach of defending champion Puerto Rico, Eduardo Figueroa said that he was banking on his team to dominate the championship and win again.

According to Alison Reid manager of team Jamaican, some persons who planned to compete when it was scheduled for July are no longer available and that the team will have fewer numbers than previously committed but that the team will still put on a good show.

Jamaica has two coaches who were both optimistic about the team’s ability to play well even with the reduced number of players. Jonathan Newnhan said that the team wais well prepared and if they compete based on their preparation then they should put out some good scores, meanwhile Jason Lopez said that the competition course, the Caymanas Golf Course was in good shape for the championship. He also said that the team should benefit from home course advantage because the team had been practicing on it for a long time in preparation for the championship.

Some of the Jamaican players who will be on the course include team captain Mattea Issa in the Under 18 category and, Trey Williams, Aman Dhiman and Ryan Lue in the same age group. Players will also compete in Under 15 and Under 13 for boys and girls categories.

Peter Levey of major sponsor BCIC said that his company very happy to be on board for this year’s staging of the CAJGC as it represents a very good opportunity to support the development of youth sport.

Some of the many sponsors include British Caribbean Insurance Company (BCIC), Restaurants of Jamaica (KFC), Sandals Foundation, WATA, CMK, Jamaica Pegasus, Fleetwood Jamaica Limited, R&A, Island Car Rentals & Tours, Digicel Business, Titlest and several others.

The teams will tee off at 8:00 am on Wednesday for the first of three rounds of eighteen holes each and will end on Friday after which the closing ceremony will be held.