The USA’s Mac McLear was atop the professional section of leaderboard at the end of the first day of the 57th Jamaica Open Golf Championship which is being played at the Tryall Golf Course in Sandy Bay, Hanover.
He posted five under par 67 for the first round under very hot temperatures and a soft course due to the heavy rains leading up to the start of the championship. He shot three under par on the front nine and two under par on the back nine for a one shot lead at the end of the first round.
“It was a good day. I played well. Did a lot of things right. I managed the heat. When I could, drink a lot of water and ended up being all right. “I think the front nine is pretty scoreable. That’s where most of the par fives are. The back nine gets tough. I definitely did not play the back nine as well as i’d like but scramble and made the puts when needed to and ended up shooting one under par on the back” said McLear.
He was looking forward to a similar second round, “hopefully the same stuff. Gonna try and so the same thing and see what happens.”
Stephen Thomas of Canada was a close second on four under par 68, while Marcus Mohr of the UK and Ryan Sullivan of the USA were tied for third place on three under par 69.
The best place Jamaican was Justin Burrowes who shot one under par 71to close out the first round.
The defending champion Andrew Arft was six shots off the lead but expects to have a better second round and to make up ground. ‘It was good. Got off to a nice start. The course is in good shape. I was playing well, made two bad swings but overall it was a pretty solid round. Just try to do the same tomorrow with a couple less bad swings and we will be off to the races”
For the second round he said “get in contention tomorrow (Monday) and anything can happen in the last five holes on the last day so it doesn’t really worry me. I am just focused on the first couple of holes tomorrow, get off to a good stat and go from there.”
Zandre Roye and Oshae Haye were joint leaders of the amateur section after scoring two over par 74 each. They were both hopeful of an even better second round. Roye said “It feel good (the first round score). Today was a little bit trying to get used to the condition of the golf course. Out there it was kinda difficult but two over par today, I am happy with that. Let’s see what the rest of the week have in store for me.”
Haye on the other hand said “to me it was a bit hectic today with the wind condition. You not getting much ball flight because its cold and you have holeds out there where normally if you have the wind you would get a better help with the wind.”
He plans “to just stick to the game plan. See if I can make use of the par fives on the front. I didn’t do that today, and hope to execute the back nine the same way cause that’s the harder nine.
Defending amateur champion Sean Morris was tied for 5th place with jack Stein on eight over par 80.
Day one leader Mac Mclear will tee off at 11:40 am on Monday’s second round.
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