Over 60 golfers will tee-off in the two-day Caymanas Golf Classic at the Caymanas Golf Club in St. Catherine, on Saturday morning at 7:30 am. It is the first Jamaica Golf Association’s (JGA) qualifying event on the calendar for this year.
The defending champions in the Ladies and Men’s categories are Jodie Munn-Barrow and Justin Burrowes. They will be on the course again to vie for another go at the respective titles.
A special feature of this year’s classic is that the eight competitors in the Men & Men Senior 0-6 (WAGR) category will play 54 holes over the two days (27 holes each day), in a bid to gain world amateur golf ranking points which will allow them to play in more tournaments across the region and the world, which are open to ranked golfers. This allows the local golfers to gain ranking points quickly.
The Jamaica Golf Association (JGA) got approval last year to play 54 holes over two days instead of the normal three days in order to gain ranking points from the R&A and the USGA (Royal & Ancient Golf Club, Unites States Golf Association).
Two of the local golfers that have world golf ranking points are Justin Burrowes at 347 and William Knibbs at 741. They were invited to play in this year’s Latin America Amateur Golf Championships in January as the two highest ranked amateur golfers in Jamaica at the time.
Burrowes expects to be tested by the format “I am looking forward to get going this weekend. I haven’t played a 54-hole tournament in two days since this tournament last year so I am looking forward to the test. Expectation wise I try to keep it very simple. I just want to go out and execute as best as possible and count the scores at the end. Its gonna be long but I think it provides a good test and it will kinda show me where my game is at and where I need to improve on. I feel like I have worked on some of the areas where I have been weak on in the last six months so I am looking forward to put that to the test in a tournament and we will see how that goes.”
The other six golfers who will compete in the Mem & Men Senior category are Sean Morris, Zandre Roye, Trey Williams, Tenny Davis, Robert Sterling and Wayne Chai-Chong. Roye and Knibbs placed second and third in last year’s Classic.
The balance of the golfers on the course will play 36 holes over the two days which is normal, while playing 18 holes each day. The will play in several categories including Men & Men Senior 0-6, Men & Men Senior 7-12, Men & Men Senior 13-24, Men Super Senior 0-12, Men Super Senior 13-24, Masters, Junior Boys 18 and Under, Junior Boys 14-15 and Junior Boys 11-13.
Some of the golfers to look out for include Metry Seaga, Peter Chin – former JGA president, Mike Gleichman, Major Desmond Brown, Rowena Coe and Diane Hudson.
