Rocky start but Burrowes grateful for collegiate experience
IT HAS not been the ideal start to national golfer Justin Burrowes’ collegiate career.
Burrowes, who is preparing to enter his sophomore year at Florida Atlantic University, has been gunning to test his skills against the best teams in the United States. However, due to a gap year taken after high school, he was ineligible to play in the 2019 fall semester. This year has not been kind to him either, as the 2020 spring golf season was cut short because of the coronavirus pandemic. Although it has been a rocky beginning, Burrowes says that he has managed to gain experience in competing with talented players despite the lack of competition.
“It definitely wasn’t ideal but at the same time I did kind of get experience playing with different players from all over the world. Playing on better courses, having different facilities and just access to so much more was definitely worth it,” Burrowes told The Gleaner. “I didn’t get to play in many tournaments or compete that much, but I surely have benefited from [the experience so far].”
KEEPING FIT
Following the shortened season which ended in March, Burrowes has since returned to the island, and says that he managed to not let the pandemic prevent him from maintaining playing sharpness.
“I have been in Jamaica for the past six months and I have been able to practise on the weekends at Cinnamon Hill in Montego Bay. So in terms of practice schedule and all of that it hasn’t affected me that much,” he said. “Sometimes there is no motivation because there are no tournaments in front of me, but locally, I was able to play with a group of guys that were trying to stay competitive, and that’s how I have been able to keep sharp during this time.”
He was finally able to shake off the competition rust this year, placing second in the Jamaica Amateur Golf Championship in July, the first local event to be held since the outbreak. With the NCAA suspending fall sports, Burrowes says that he will remain in Jamaica for the rest of the year, taking online classes for the upcoming semester. While the prospect of a 2021 spring golf schedule remains unknown, Burrowes says that a resumption would heavily depend on whether college football returns in some capacity this fall.
“If they can get football started back, then chances are other sports can start back,” he said. “[It would also depend on] if international students are able to travel to the US. But I just don’t know.”
Burrowes was a part of the squad that was named by the Golf Coaching Association of America as an all-academic team in July, having registered a grade point average above 3.0 to qualify for the honour.