Rudolph Brown/Chief PhotographerWhylie Lopez, general manager of the Caymanas Golf and Country Club, views the new water hazards.
THE CAYMANAS Golf and Country Club course (CGCC). in St. Catherine, looks in superb shape to host the 50th Caribbean Amateur Golf Championships (CAGC) next week.
A late venue shift, owing to financial factors, from the north coast's Cinnamon Hill course to CGCC put the club's general manager, Whylie Lopez, and his groundstaff under some pressure, but he says all is now good to go with the staging of the event.
"The good news is that we are very busy with tournaments and I also have 300 very discerning members and they make the extra trek to Caymanas because of what it is and how good it is, so there is no question that I have to keep the course in really fine fettle all of the time," Lopez said.
"So, trying to move to a tournament of this stature is a 20 per cent additional effort - not a 50 per cent or 75 per cent effort," he said.
"One of the things we had to tweak was the tees. Over the years the tees have become rounded and mounded instead of nice and flat. We have done extensive work on levelling all of the tees that don't give you a strong footing.
"Secondly, we redid our traps - our bunkers, so that we had a nice inch and a half of good sand in them so that everybody has a good chance out of them.
"A couple of months ago we also acquired a piece of equipment out of Australia called a 'greens roller'. What it does is iron out and press out all of the little bumps, so we have nice smooth greens."
As part of a mild facelift to the verdant course, its water hazards, which for a number of years were dry, are now finally wet and clubhouse bound holes nine and 18 have been switched.
While the bunkers, ample trees and water hazards will play their part, the par-72 CGCC's greatest defender is the wind and that could keep scoring low rounds challenging.
"A course like this is vulnerable when there is no wind and it becomes extremely difficult when there is wind," Lopez said. "I think they will have a lot of fun with the wind out there.
"I think the (top) scores will be around par or plus one, maybe," Lopez said before adding: "Remember, though, the emblem of this course is an alligator and the players always say if you don't watch out, it will jump up and bite you."
- T.G.
