Jamaica’s William Knibbs made the cut at the 8th Latin America Amateur Championship (LAAC) (golf) on Friday at the Grand Reserve Golf Course in Puerto. The island’s other representative, Justin Burrowes missed the cut.
Knibbs’ first round one over par 73 at the end of the first day, had him poised to make the cut if he could maintain that score or do better. At that point he was tied for 47th place along with several other golfers. He posted a solid two over par 74 during Friday’s second round for a two-day total of three over par 147 and tied for 49th place with five others, and importantly made the cut.
“I just made the cut which is amazing. That was my goal coming into this event. Its my third LAAC and I had never made a cut so that was my big goal heading into this week, just to make the cut. Now that I have made the cut I won’t settle on that. I am gonna try to play as well as I can moving forward but it feels great accomplishing a major milestone. It was kinda nerve wracking for the whole day seeing my name hovering on the leaderboard in or just out by one and eventually it got kinda discouraging towards end because my name was the first name after the projected cut, so yea I am looking to tomorrow and Sunday” said Knibbs.
The cut line was set at three over par or the top 50 golfers at the end of the second round. The golfers who made the cut will compete for another two rounds to determine the overall winner.
Burrowes who is competing in the LAAC for the fourth time posted five over par 77 for the first round and placed 84th. He posted another five over par 77 on the second day for a two-day total of 10 over par 154 meant that he missed the cut line for the first time.
He said “disappointing last couple of days. Its unfortunate to miss the cut, unfortunate not to play well but its part of the game. One thing for sure about this week is that it exposed my weaknesses, the weak areas of my game. More than anything else I am just excited to get back to work. I think today was certainly more positive overall. I felt like I managed myself better even though the score didn’t quite reflect it. There were some small wins out there.”
Louis Carrera of Mexico topped the leaderboard at the end of the second round after posting 10 under par 134 with scores of five under par 67 on each of the first two days. The first day leader, Mateo Fuenmayor of Colombia ended the second round tied for 25th place with five others after posting five over par 77, with a two-day total of one under par 143 (66, 77).
Defending champion Aaron Jarvis of the Cayman Islands is currently tied in the 14th position with 9 others with a score of two under par 142. He shot par 72 and two under par 70 on the first and second day respectively.