Tym Glaser, Associate Editor - Sport
RUNAWAY BAY:
THE NATIONAL Golf Trials to select this year's team to the Caribbean Amateur Golf Championships (CAGC) in St. Kitts were abandoned after three rounds yesterday.
Heavy rain on Saturday afternoon and evening left the front nine holes at the Breezes course here unplayable yesterday and Trial organisers were forced to scrap the final round at the north coast course.
While there has been no official word from the Jamaica Golf Association (JGA), it is believed the Trials will be reduced to the 54 holes played (36 at the Caymanas Golf and Country Club and 18 at Breezes Runaway Bay), which would mean only five players made the automatic qualifying marks to represent the island at the August tournament.
The most impressive performances came in the men's Hoerman Cup section where the required mark over three rounds was 225 strokes - three players went under that.
JGA/UWI scholarship recipient Damian Spencer led the way with 220. After two solid rounds of three-over 75 at Caymanas, he struck a superb two-under 70 in a round which had to be completed yesterday. He finished 16 holes in extremely trying conditions on Saturday.
Michael Scott (71-74-78-223), who also finished his interrupted third round yesterday, and Owen Samuda (78-73-72-223) also fell within the qualifying range to almost certainly book their places on the five-man Cup side.
PRIME CANDIDATES
The final two players will be chosen by the JGA's selection committee with Radcliff Knibbs (74-75-82-231), Constant Spring caddie Fabian Campbell (81-76-76-233) and Mark Newnham (77-78-79-234) being the prime candidates.
Oregon-based Phillip Prendergast rode two good rounds at Caymanas (72-70-79-221) to be seven strokes under the 54-hole target of 228 in the Over-35 Ramon Baez-Figueroa Trophy section. In that two-man competition he will almost certainly be partnered by Mike Gleichmann (76-75-78), who was off the mark by a mere stroke.
The other "automatic" selection would be Supersenior Dennis Atkinson (77-74-79-230), who was four under the target on Saturday evening. Herman McDonald (84-78-79-241) was next in line and 10 strokes ahead of his nearest rival for the second and final berth on the Higgs and Higgs Cup side.
None of the women competing for the three places on the George Teale Trophy team were at the target of 234. However, Jodi Barrow (78-82-75-235), veteran Maggie Lyn (83-78-78-239) and Lisandra Brown (85-77-78-240) would appear sure bets to represent the island again this year.
The men's Seniors also struggled over the three days and failed to get anywhere near their three-round mark of 231. Freddy Sutherland (79-83-82-244) and Lincoln Williams (85-82-79-246) were clearly the best in the race for two places on the Francis and Steele Perkins Trophy side, but the JGA selection panel did not send a Senior team to the CAGC last year due to costs and the failure of the players to reach the qualifying mark.
