Related items

• Bill Williams nurturing futures one swing at a time through Sandals Care for Kids Junior Golf Programme

  For most children in and around St Ann, golf is more than just a game. Instead it is viewed as a lifeline, a discipline, and an opportunity.

  At the heart of this transformative journey stands Bill Williams, a man deeply committed to changing the lives of young Jamaicans through the Sandals Foundation Care for Kids Junior Golf Programme.

  Williams, the lead professional golfer at the Sandals Golf and Country Club, has for years been dedicated to empowering boys who are at risk of straying down troubled paths, introducing them to the game of golf, not just as a sport but as a means of character building and personal development.

  “I love kids. There’s a duty in me to take care of kids. I always tell myself, if you can grow kids, you grow the country, and you’re growing something good. The guys tell me they love it because I take them off the streets and... them things,” Williams said in a recent interview.

  “I’ve been doing this programme since 2002; that’s when I started. I went into my village where I live in Exchange and I see kids... and I bring them over and [guide] them,” he added.

  Williams sees golf as more than a series of strokes and strategies. For him, it is a way to teach young men about patience, discipline, and respect—qualities that they can carry well beyond the green.

  

  Bill Williams (centre) shares a photo opportunity with members of Team 13 during the Sandals US Travel Advisors Tournament.

  The success stories he tells are numerous, as many of the boys who once faced uncertain futures have gone on to compete at the national level, among them are Zandre Roye, Romaine Evans, and Oshae Haye, just to name a few.

  “I turn out some very good kids out of this thing here. And they are all over the world, global now. There [are] so many kids because I used to do this for eight years on my own before Sandals Foundation came on board. And even though they leave the programme at the age of 18, they still come back here, and I still try to offer advice because there is always room for improvements,” Williams shared.

  Williams is especially enthusiastic about the future of the programme, as funds raised through the three Sandals Travel Advisors Golf Tournaments—Latin America, Canada, and the United States—the programme is set for significant expansion.

  This funding will allow Williams and his team to reach more young men across the island, providing resources to further develop their skills and broaden their opportunities. The latest United States Travel Advisors tournament raised US$800 (about $127,000 Jamaican) for the programme.

  “This is a very important tournament every year for us to get a little extra for the foundation because the kids [have] got to play tournaments and we use the money to fund them. We help who cannot really afford to go to school—we do help with that too. So, I think this programme will go much further and impact more youths,” Williams ended.

• Excelsior, St Catherine consolidate group honours after 5-1, 1-1 scorelines against Jonathan Grant, Jamaica College

  Excelsior High and St Catherine High consolidated their positions atop Groups Two and Four after registering contrasting performances against Jonathan Grant and Jamaica College, respectively, on the final day of the Inter-secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA)/Digicel Manning Cup Round of 16 encounters on Saturday.

  Excelsior High registered a commanding 5-1 win over Jonathan Grant to finish at the summit of Group Two with maximum nine points.

  They will be joined in the quarterfinal by Tivoli Gardens, who ended second with four points and a slightly better goal difference ahead of Eltham (four points) after they played out a lively 2-2 stalemate in the other group fixture.

  Over in Group Four, St Catherine’s 1-1 stalemate with former champions Jamaica College saw them top the group with seven points, two points ahead of their Old Hope Road-based opponents, who ended with five points to also progress to the quarterfinal.

  Calabar ended third on four points after they defeated Charlie Smith 3-0 in a game of academic interest.

  The quarterfinal groups will see Mona High, Tivoli High, Jamaica College and Kingston College crossing swords in Group A, while St Catherine, Excelsior High, Campion College and Hydel are set to do battle in Group B.

  Meanwhile, all other teams that failed to progress from the Round of 16 will contest the Walker Cup knockout competition.

  Saturday’s results

  St Catherine 1, Jamaica College 1

  Eltham 2, Tivoli High 2

  Excelsior 5, Jonathan Grant 1

  Calabar 3, Charlie Smith 0

• 57th Jamaica Open Golf Championship launched

  The Jamaica Golf Association (JGA) launched the prestigious 57th Jamaica Open Golf Championship on Thursday at the Constant Spring Golf Club in Kingston. 

  The championship will be held at the picturesque Tryall Golf Club in Hanover for the fifth consecutive year from November 10 to 12 while the pro-am tournament is scheduled for November 9 with an 8:30 am start.

  It will feature the majority of the pros and the amateurs playing in teams, to share skills, generate camaraderie and introduce the course to the overseas based golfers. 

  Sixty players from United States of America (USA), Canada, Trinidad & Tobago, Bermuda, and host country Jamaica have completed their registration already, including the defending champion, professional Andrew Arft of the USA.

  The playing format will be stroke play, 18 holes each day for a total of 54 holes. 

  “We are expecting a very successful event. Based on the entries so far, we have surpassed last year’s numbers. The difficulty we had with this tournament in terms of entries was from the pandemic, the numbers have been rising but have not gotten back to the level that they were,” said organizing committee chairman Peter Chin.

  “We are hopeful every year to increase the prize money because that is what attracts the top professional golfers. The prize money this year if we have a full field is US$110,000,” added Chin.

  The honouree for this year’s event is Johnny Bloomfield who won the Jamaica Open three times.

  JGA president Jodi Munn-Barrow expounded on the choice of Bloomfield as honouree.

  “Johnny is the only one to win three consecutive Jamaica Opens on two different golf courses. He won his first one at Caymanas (2006) and then the last two (2008 and 2009) at Half Moon Golf Course when we had it at Half Moon. So that itself is a feat. Seymour Rose is another three-time winner but not consecutively so we thought it was just right to award him as the honouree this year for that feat.” 

  She said that the Tryall Golf Course was “excellent as usual."

  "I got word from them that they are ready to go. The superintendent is on top of the preparations. The rough will be grown in again like last year so it will make it a little bit more difficult for the pros and the amateurs but Tryall is challenging on its own and if the wind comes up it will be even much harder so I think Tryall is the perfect spot for championships such as the Jamaica Open.” 

  Two of the sponsors, Tourism Enhancement Fund and Sports Development Foundation were represented by Dr. Carey Wallace and Alan Beckford respectively. They endorsed the open. 

  Wallace, executive director of TEF said “golf tourism is of course an important diamond amongst diamonds that we have here in Jamaica and so investing in this tournament which is an international tournament, in fact it is the number one international tournament here in Jamaica for golf. We believe that it is necessary for us to support the outstanding associations, stakeholders that are putting it together for them to have the resources to take it to higher levels.”

  Beckford, the SDF’s general manager said “the Sports Development Foundation has historically supported the sport of golf and it goes more than just supporting the golf federation. We also have had a summer camp that we have supported in collaboration with Insports and we have had this camp for a number of years where we have students from the community around Caymanas Golf Course coming out to participate in the camp. We have sponsored a pro-am tournament a couple of years as well too so we see golf to be a very important sport among the sports in Jamaica. We think it’s an excellent sport and we wish them the best with this tournament.” 

  Aqua Bay Resort returns as presenting sponsor for the fifth consecutive year. The major sponsors include the TEF, Tryall, JTB, Jamaica Tours, Grand Palladium, SDF and Vybwear while the product sponsors are Wata, Juici Patties, Café Blue, Honey Bun and Rainforest.