Tym Glaser, Associate Editor - Sport
Left: John Smith. Right: Members of the Dominican Republic's men's golf team celebrate their Hoerman Cup victory at the Caribbean Amateur Golf Championships at the Caymanas Golf & Country Club on Saturday. - Colin Hamilton/Freelance Photographer
JAMAICA TEAM captain John Smith was a disappointed man as the sun set on the 50th anniversary Caribbean Amateur Golf Championships (CAGC) at the Caymanas Golf and Country Club on Saturday evening.
Much was expected of the team when it teed off on Wednesday, but at the end of the four-day, five-section competition, the hosts emerged with only one piece of hardware, the women's George Teale Trophy.
The Jamaicans also finished second in the men's senior Francis and Steele-Perkins Cup through Smith and George Hugh behind Barbados' dynamic duo of Robert Piggott and Richard Skeete and ultimately were runners-up in the overall standings for the Arthur Ziadie Trophy to regional rivals Trinidad and Tobago.
Window dressing
However, that was all window dressing and failed to cover the flaws which were exposed on a course which is home to 11 of the 14 Jamaican players.
"I am very disappointed," Smith, a CAGC veteran, said. "Except for the girls, we did not do well and I am particularly disappointed in the Hoerman Cuppers," he said of the men's section which spawned what ultimately has become the CAGC 50 years ago when T&T and Jamaica battled it out for the first Cup.
"We invested a lot of time in those guys and they just didn't deliver."
The five-man Hoerman Cup team comprised Owen Samuda, Michael Scott, Fabian Campbell, Damion Spencer and Radcliff Knibbs and the best four scores each day counted towards the team total. They finished fourth with a score of 1,212 - a whopping 30 strokes behind champions the Dominican Republic.
Samuda was the best performer with a four-day gross of nine-over 297 but the Hoerman Cup team leader never shot under par and had momentum crushing back-to-back double bogeys at the par-four 14th on the second and third days.
Scott, the second most experienced player on the men's team, blew up badly after a first-round two-over 74 and finished on 313 with his final two rounds of 81 each not counting to the team total.
Spencer was the only Jamaican player to shoot a sub-par round (70) and had three scores which counted as he grossed 300 while fellow young gun Campbell also had three scores count on his way to 308 but the closest he got to par was a two-over 74.
Intimate knowledge
Knibbs, chosen by the Jamaica Golf Association's selection because of his intimate knowledge of the course, had two scores count but they were 78s in the final two rounds when Scott collapsed. He played 318 strokes over the four days.
"They didn't stick to the game plan," Smith said. "They tried to hit the ball too long and they went out of play. In this competition you have to know how to score and you just can't keep hitting the ball long, long."
While other teams at the CAGC had a coach to help them map their paths around the scenic course, Jamaica had only team manager Lincoln Williams and an assistant out on the course and their primary task was to check on the players and supply them with water and food.
"We really do need a full-time coach," Smith asserted. "Some of these young guys need coaching - particularly when it comes to getting out of trouble."
Williams believes the problem is deeper than mere coaching.
"We need to look at the whole structure of golf here because the gap is widening between us and the likes of Trinidad and Tobago and Puerto Rico," he said. "We have as many talented golfers as anyone else, but golf is more than just about talent. We have to look at the whole infrastructure," he said.
