Golf boss unhappy with new format

Trinidad and Tobago Golf Association’s president Clarence Wilcox is unhappy over a new format for the Caribbean Golf Association (CGA) championship which introduces an additional category for the 2003 tournament.

The CGA decided last August at their annual general meeting, that a fifth category, the men’s mid-amateurs, will be launched, and teams for the men’s Hoerman Cup and the women’s George Teale Trophy will both be reduced. The mid-amateurs category, for players between the ages of 35 and 50 years, will be a two-ball better-ball medal play format.

“We are not happy with this change,” Wilcox told CMC Sport.
“It limits the aspirations of younger players, since the men’s Hoerman Cup team is reduced from six to four, and it also reduces the women’s George Teale teams as well,” Wilcox added.

While the Hoerman Cup teams will be reduced by two, the George Teale teams will be limited to two players, instead of the usual three.

“We  were a dissenting voice, and we hope that the CGA will revisit the decision for future tournaments,” Wilcox said. The 2003 CGA Championship, set for August 3-10 at the Tobago Plantations Beach and Golf Resort in Tobago, was launched on Tuesday at the Hilton Trinidad in Port-of-Spain. Puerto Rico, aiming for a fifth consecutive overall championship title, is among ten countries listed for the TT$1.5 million (US$242,000) tournament.

Host Trinidad and Tobago, who finished second last year, Barbados, Jamaica, the Bahamas, US Virgin Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands, the Dominican Republic, the Cayman Islands, and the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) complete the line-up.