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• 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.

   

   

• Garth Laird celebrates resilience, camaraderie as Team Six top Sandals US Travel Advisors Golf tourney

  Rain may have dampened the first day of the Sandals US Travel Advisors Golf Tournament, but it couldn’t wash away the spirit of the event or the competitive resolve of players.

  In fact, Garth Laird, Sandals Vice President of Trade and Sales, underscored that the significance of the annual tournament is intended to celebrate just that—the resilience and camaraderie of travel advisors who are essential to the success of Sandals and, by extension, brand Jamaica.

  “This tournament itself goes beyond just a game of golf,” Laird shared passionately.

  He continued: “It's really about bringing advisors down. It's about reengaging with the product and what it has to offer, and if I can use three words, it's love, legacy, and learning. Love of the product, love of Jamaica, the legacy that Sandals offers to the greater audience of the travel agency community, and it's also about learning.

  “It was only one day of golf; we still got the educational component built into it. In the last few months we've also taken a bigger approach because when you add this number together, we've brought about a thousand people to the destination over the last eight weeks because there's so many things that are happening in Jamaica that people aren't aware of. So there's so many new things that's going on, and our responsibility is to educate the advisors so that they can educate their customers,” he added.

  

  Thought rain threatened to wash out the two-day event entirely, the clouds parted on the second day and the advisors got their swing on in the four-man scramble format, which ended with Team Six taking the title with a nine-hole score of 61 at the Sandals Golf and Country Club. They won ahead of Team 13 and Team Five, which ended with scores of 62 and 64, respectively.

  That team, captained by Jeremy Lee and included father and son duo David and Adam Anderson, as well as David Schutz, was particularly determined to clinch the top spot this year.

  After securing the championship in 2022 but narrowly missing out last year, they entered the tournament with renewed focus, and Lee said the win was the culmination of hard work and the camaraderie they’d built over the years of competing together.

  “I think in general, we all could have shot a little bit better, but the weather played into it. Thankfully, there was no thunder or lightning, and we ended up coming out okay. This is the same team we had last year, and two years ago we had one different player, but three of us have been together every year,” Lee, who is based in Alabama, said.

  “Just to get an invite to the tournament means a lot to me. This is my third year. Like I said, it's a huge deal. We're really competitive, but really we're here to have fun, learn more about Sandals and Beaches products, and learn to sell more. I sell destinations all over the world, but when people call me and ask what's my favourite place, I say Jamaica because the people are so genuine and nice,” he declared.

  

  Meanwhile, Welton Bowie and Donna Tanner won the men’s and women’s closest to the pin awards, while Schutz and Megan Sams won the respective longest drive awards.

  Close to US$800 (about $126,000 Jamaican) was also raised for the Sandals foundation.

  With representatives from various regions, Laird explained that the tournament also serves as an informal networking event, bringing together travel advisors and Sandals executives to share industry insights and foster connections in a relaxed environment.

  “We're going to do one in St. Lucia next year. So it's the Canadian winners, the winners of the US Tournament, and the winners of the Latin American Tournament, plus we'll sprinkle in some other four folks, like a long-drive person. This is to showcase that it is more than one event. It's more about getting together, doing what we do, which is hospitality and travel,” Laird shared.

  “We have the luxury of being probably the most popular brand across the Caribbean right now because of our impact globally as well as within the United States, with our sales team, with our marketing, with our advertising. So when we do something in the Caribbean, it really stands out as a company that continues to reinvest in the people that make us who we are,” he noted.

• Jamaica successfully defends CGA 4-Ball Golf Champs title for fifth-straight year

  Team Jamaica returned to the island earlier this week as five-time winners of the Caribbean Golf Association’s 4-Ball Championship, which was held in Trinidad and Tobago at the Plantation Golf and Country Club.

  Since 2020, when Jamaica won the overall trophy or the Ambrose Gouthro Cup, the island’s golfers have distinguished themselves by winning the cup each year including this year having amassed 73 points over Trinidad and Tobago’s 56.

  The other islands in the six-team championship were Bermuda in third place with 38 points, the Bahamas on 34, Barbados on 23, and the Cayman Islands placed sixth with nine points.

  Jamaica entered the championship with the largest number of golfers, numbering twenty, followed by host country Trinidad and Tobago with sixteen. There were six-trophy categories within the championship. Jamaica won four of the six categories, came second in one and fifth in the other, while putting on a dominant display over its Caribbean partners. The male/female trophy breakdown showed three wins and a fifth place for the men, while the women won one and came second in the other.

  Dr. Mark Newnham and Owen Samuda teamed up to capture the Francis Steele & Perkins Cup for the senior men ahead of Bermuda after posting seven under par 209 over the three rounds, to one under par 215 by Bermuda. They had two very good rounds of three under par each for the second and third rounds, respectively, while scoring one under par 71 in the first round.

  The duo of Radcliff Knibbs and Keith Stein posted even more impressive scores to take the Higgs & Higgs Trophy. Their three-day total of eleven under par 205 resulted from three under par 69 in the first round and four under par 68 in the last two rounds. The B team of Metry Seaga and Mike Glieckman came in second with a four under par 212 score, while Trinidad came in third with one over par 217.

  The Ashraph Ali Trophy for Masters or men over 70 went to Jamaica’s men’s team of Dorrel Allen and Victor Hudson. They posted a combined score of 220 to share the trophy with the Bahamas, who posted the same score.

  The local duo of Andre Dhanpaul and Delroy Johnson were no match for Bermuda in the quest for the Ramon Baez Romano Trophy for mid amateur men. Bermuda’s total score was nine under par 207 while Jamaica posted 24 over par 240 for fifth place.

  The combination of Michelle McCreath and Maggie Lyn grabbed the Dessie Henry Trophy for females 45 and over. They scored 252 ahead Trinidad and Tobago’s 264 in second place.

  Trinidad and Tobago turned the tables on Jodi Munn-Barrow and Lisa Gardner to take the Maria Nunes Trophy for ladies 25 and over. Trinidad and Tobago’s combined score of 240 was just two strokes ahead of Jamaica’s 242.

  President of the Jamaica Golf Association, Jodi Munn-Barrow, expressed delight at the accomplishment.

  “I am extremely proud of team Jamaica at this year’s 4-Ball Championships, victorious in all except one category this year and a second place finish. We continue to streak five years as overall champion and everybody went out there, the team played hard, the conditions were tough, course was windy but we all played to our game plan and I am very very proud of all of all of the team members," she said.