BRIDGETOWN—The Caribbean’s leading amateur golfers will tee-up alongside the best in the Latin American region in the 2016 Latin America Amateur Golf Championship (LAAC) in the Dominican Republic.
The major championship, the biggest stage for amateur golfers in the region, started yesterday at the “Teeth-of-The-Dog” course at Casa de Campo. The tournament, where the winner will be invited to play in this year’s Masters, runs from January 14-17 and 108 players from 27 countries are taking part.
Most of the big names in Caribbean Hoerman Cup competition are included and among them are Jamaicans Jonathan Newnham and Ian Facey; Trevor Levine (USVI); James Johnson and Scott Stollmeyer (Barbados); Talin Rajendranath, Sachin Kumar, Liam Bryden and Matthew Marquez (Trinidad and Tobago); and Puerto Ricans Robert Calvesbert, Erick Juan Morales and Jeronimo Esteve.
Also competing are Elijah Delancy and Devaughn Robinson of the Bahamas and Cliff Alcide and Ben Gillmor of St Lucia. The DR, as host country, has been awarded six slots in the LAAC championship. Their players are Juan José Guerra, Chad McCann, George Riley, Rhadamés Peña, Hiram Silfa and Francisco Muñoz.
Players from the hemisphere qualified to compete in the second edition of the LAAC, based on their international amateur rankings.
President of the Caribbean Golf Association, Sidney Wolf of Puerto Rico, said hosting the championship in a CGA member country was a major development for golf in the Caribbean and the participation of the regional players was also an opportunity for significant exposure for Caribbean players.
“The golfing eyes of the world will be watching the Championship and whoever wins will be representing all of us from the Latin America and Caribbean golfing communities,” said Wolf.
“This is a very important initiative for the development of the game in our region. The CGA is very grateful to the organisers for this opportunity to expose our region to over 150 countries around the world via Television and other media outlets.”
Wolf added that the LAAC Championship would continue to grow and help to improve the level of golf in the Caribbean as regional players will work harder to qualify.
“Our golfers have the incentive to work even harder in order to win and play against the very best at Augusta National, during the Masters Tournament … a dream for every golfer.”
The 2016 LAAC Championship, the second edition of the tournament, will be played over 72-holes of stroke-play. Last year’s champion in the inaugural tournament in Argentina, Matias Dominguez of Chile who won with a score of 11-under 277, will be defending his title.
Of the 108 players, the highest-ranked player in the WAGR (World Amateur Golf Rankings) is Uruguay’s Juan Alvarez at No 36.
CMC