Host country Puerto Rico dominated all three competition categories in the 64th Caribbean Amateur Golf Championship which was being played at the Country Club at Grand Reserve, Rio Grande, between August 24 to 26. They won the country trophy – the Arthur Ziadie Trophy, the male team trophy – the Hoerman Cup and the female team trophy – the George Teale Trophy.
Puerto Rico’s male team score was seven over par 871 on the back of their four best players, of which they had three in the top five positions. The female team only needed the top two scores and they had two players who were joint first along with a Dominican Republican player. Their score was thirteen over par 445.
The Jamaican male team bagged second position after coming third the last time the competition was played in 2019. They posted a total team score of 50 over par 914. (The top four players who contributed to the team score were Justin Burrowes, William Knibbs, Owen Samuda and Shamar Wilson).
Third went to the Dominincan Republic – 55 over par 919 while Trinidad & Tobago was fourth – 84 over par 948 and Bahamas round out the top five with 96 over par 960. The other team in the competition was US Virgin Islands – 152 over par 1061.
Jeromino Esteve of Puerto Rico was the overall best player after scoring one under par 215 for the three days Next was Rhadames Pans of the Dominican Republic even par 216, followed by Roberto Nieves of Puerto Rico – one over par 217 and Gustavo Rangel also of Puerto Rico – three over par 219. Jamaica’s Justin Burrowes round out the top five with six over par 222.
The other three Jamaicans who contributed to the team’s second place were William Knibbs who was the only local player to post an under par score of 71 on the final day. His three-day score was nine over par 225, for 7th place. Owen Samuda’s score was 15 over par 231 for 10th place while new comer Shamar Wilson was 22 over par 238.
Rocco Lopez – 27 over par 243 and Dr. Mark Newham 39 over par 255made up the six member Jamaican team.
Jamaica’s female team of new comer old Mattea Issa (14 year old) and Madelyn Newkik ended in fourth place after posting 68 over par 500. Puerto Rico was first with a score of 13 over par 445 while the Dominican Republic was second – 44 over par 476 and third went to US Virgin Islands – 68 over par 473.
Three players tied for first place, namely Darianys Guzman and Paola Rosario of Puerto Rico and Alexandra Swayne of the US Virgin Islands who posted three-day combined scores of 225 each. Camila Negroni of Puerto Rico – 226 and Yae Eun Kim – 231 were fourth and fifth respectively.
Mattea Issa – 247 was sixth while Madelyn Newkirk – 253 ended in ninth place at the end of the championship.
Jamaica’s team manager, Robert Chin was pleased with the team’s performance, “the 64th Caribbean Amateur Golf Championship is now history. As manager of the team I am pleased to say that Jamaica played gallantly today to take second place in the Hoerman Cup. Kudos to all the players. They knew what was at stake, we discussed it last night. We knew what we had to do. We had to play patient and consistent golf and we managed to maintain the second position into day three. Again, this an outstanding team performance given the limited preparation time that we had leading up to the championship. This just reinforce the golfing talent that we have in Jamaica and the future with some more resources and some more commitment to golf, I think we have a far way to go to becoming one of the better golfing countries in the Caribbean.”
The Jamaican team was sponsored by Bert’s Auto Parts, JMMB Bank and R&R Distribution Limited.