Tym Glaser, Associate Editor - Sport
Maggie Lyn
THE DOMINICAN Republic were crowned the kings of Caribbean golf yesterday after they won the prestigious Hoerman Cup for a third time at the Caribbean Amateur Golf Championships (CAGC) at the Caymanas Golf and Country Club.
The team of John Paul Garrido, Juan Campusano, Carlos Arias, Marco Midence and Hiram Silfa carded a four-round total of 1,182 to hold off the challenge of closest rivals Trinidad and Tobago to win by eight strokes and clinch the Cup on its 50th anniversary.
Puerto Rico were third with a gross score of 1,202 while hosts Jamaica finished a disappointing fourth at 1,212.
Damion Spencer shot Jamaica's first and only sub-par round of the four-day event - a two-under 70, but it was of little consolation to the 22-year-old golf scholarship student at the University of the West Indies.
"We were expecting big things because we were playing at home, but that just didn't happen," Spencer said. "Everybody tried his best but it just didn't work out and we'll just have to try to do better next year in the Dominican Republic," he said.
playing at home
"We thought playing at home would be to our advantage, but maybe it actually put more pressure on us and we probably tried too hard.
"Today I decided to play logical attack golf and it paid off," he said of a round which included an eagle, two birdies and two bogeys. "For the first three rounds I was playing conservatively and it just wasn't working."
Jamaica's other final-round scores came from Owen Samuda (76), Fabian Campbell (78) and Radcliff Knibbs (78).
There was some silver lining for the Jamaicans on a day which was interrupted by rain for about 30 minutes when the women's team brought home the George Teale Trophy by six shots over T&T with a score of 621.
Veteran Maggie Lyn shot a fine par-72 and Jodi Barrow's 80 was enough to hold off T&T. Tiffany Terrier also shot 80.
Lyn attributed her best round of the event to the women she was playing with and the Jamaica team's spirit.
"The players I played with were very good and steady and that helped me with my timing due to the slow tempo," Lyn said.
"Also the team really played together. We weren't trying to beat each other, we were just trying to get birdies for the team and it paid off," she said.
The senior pair of team captain John Smith and George Hugh held on to second place; nine strokes behind the Barbadian pair of Robert Piggott and Ricardo Skeete in the Francis and Steele-Perkins section. The Jamaicans fired a one-under 71 but couldn't haul back the Bajans who shot a four-under 68 for a winning gross of 277.
super seniors
The mid-amateur and super seniors competitions, which were reduced to 54 holes after Friday's heavy rain, were won by the Dominican Republic and the US Virgin Islands (USVI) respectively.
The Dominican team of Francisco Santoni and Edgar Pichardo shot a gross 210 (72-67-71) to win the Ramon Baez Trophy by five strokes over the Organi-sation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) and T&T (215 each). Jamaica's Keith Stein and Carl Bruce finished seventh with 221 (72-74-75).
The USVI's Ed Craig and Johnny Thompson dominated the Higgs and Higgs Trophy section and won by 11 strokes with a score of 205 (70-66-69). T&T (216) were second, followed by Puerto Rico (218). Jamaica's duo of Dennis Atkinson and Ossie Lee tied for fourth at 220 with Barbados.
The Arthur Ziadie Trophy, named in honour of the former Jamaica Golf Association president, went to T&T with a combined 124 points. Jamaica were second with 117 and the Dominican Republic third with 108.
