Locos Rojos claim JGA Junior Cup
JAMAICA’S TOP junior golfers on Saturday continued their preparations for July’s Caribbean Championship with an exciting day of match play in wet and testing conditions, contesting the second match of the Jamaica Golf Association (JGA) Junior Cup, hosted by Sandals Golf and Country Club during the resort’s inaugural Golf and Jerk Festival.
The red team, Locos Rojos, led by Luke Lindo, Radino Lobban and Katherine Lee, convincingly won respective match-ups against Kofi Pottinger, Noah Azan and Justine McKenzie of the white team, Whipped Cream, as well as the green team’s Grasshoppers, which featured Oscar Kong and Navarra Nelson.
Locos Rojos’ closest victory was Mattea Issa and Trey Williams’ one-up over Whipped Cream’s Tobias Levy and Samantha Azan.
The Sandals leg of the fourmatch Junior Cup was played in a mixed-team format – a twoman scramble with all age groups, 6-17, represented on each team.
MIXED TALENT
“We designed it that way to have maximum participation [and to] mix the talent we have. We don’t want to have one team strong and another weak,” JGA President Peter Chin explained.
Grasshoppers and the blue team, Blue Legends, exchanged victories to win two match-ups apiece in the shotgun-start event made challenging by a constant drizzle and eventual rain at the Upton, St Ann, course.
Grasshoppers’ Kyle McConnell and Luke Wright won two-up against Blue Legends’ Tristan Brown and Jacob Schnoor.
Rocco Lopez, whose three-day total of 222 (71, 74, 77), was the lowest qualifying score of all juniors at the recent national trials, teamed with Adrian Barnes to lead Blue Legends, three-up, against Grasshoppers’ Maia Garbutt and Emily Mayne.
Matthew Grant and Bjorne Dennis were four-up winners for Grasshoppers against Blue legends’ Sebastian Azan and Winni Lau. Zaniel Knight and Wahid Thomas returned the favour, six-up, against Anoushka Khatri and Adrian Leslie.
MAJOR SUCCESS
Miguel Arthurs, general manager, Sandals Golf and Country Club, said, the event, dubbed A Celebration of Sports, Food and Charity, was a major success, with residents from nearby communities braving the weather to turn out, accompanied by their children, participating in the mini health fair and visiting various other booths on display.
“The event, hosted by the Sandals Foundation, which oversees its Junior Golf Programme, is all about exposing more children to the sport and transformational development of youngsters, especially boys,” he said.
The Junior Cup has two stops remaining after kicking off at Caymanas on April 21. Cinnamon Hill will host the third leg, May 19, before the event moves to Constant Spring, St Andrew, on June 4, a month before the national selectees tee off on July 3 at the three-day Caribbean Amateur Junior Golf Championship being staged at Caymanas.