Caribbean golfers eye weather

THE UNPREDICTABLE weather in Tobago could play a significant part in the 47th Annual Caribbean Amateur Golf Championships which tees off on Wednesday.

Tournament Director William “Bill” Agard yesterday acknowledged he was very concerned about the spells of rainy weather at the Tobago Plantations Golf and Country Club, which is hosting the competition, for the first time, from August 3 to August 10. “There is a possibility that the tournament could be rained out. You must remember that last year in Puerto Rico there was actually lightning during the competition. We are hoping that we will be favoured with better weather next week,” said Agard. Currently in Tobago overseeing the final phase of preparation for the annual championships, Agard said overall results could determine the winners if at least two rounds are completed. But a stop and start scenario be-cause of rain could pose a “horrendous” problem. He described as a “nightmare” the situation which could face the Organising Committee if severe weather forced the postponement of play as the rescheduling of competition would create an enormous backlog which would stretch over the days allocated for the championships.

Other than casting a wary eye to the heavens Agard expressed great satisfaction with the preparations so far for the staging of the tourmament which has attracted teams from Bahamas, Barbados, Cayman Islands, Jamaica, Dominican Republic, Turks and Caicos, Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), Puuerto Rico, US Virgin Islands and hosts Trinidad and Tobago. Agard said Puerto Rico are the defending champions having made a clean sweep of the championships last year at home. Up for grabs are the Hoerman Cup for the top male amateurs; Francis and Steele Perkins Cup, for senior men (Over-50); Ramon Baez Figueroa (Mid Amateur) Trophy, introduced this year for players over 35; Higgs and Hill Trophy for men over 60; and the George Teale Memorial Trophy for the women. Agard said he is optimistic of Trinidad and Tobago doing well and did not rule out a clean sweep to repeat the feat of a decade ago when the championships were last staged here at the St Andrew’s Golf Club Course at Moka in Maraval. He said although Puerto Rico will be favourites to extend their dominance, the home team shows great promise with their young players. Their effort should be balanced with the seasoned veterans in the ranks Agard said.

“Carlos ‘Sexy’ Baynes is the top player in the country while Dion Gonsalves is a bright star on the horizon. The young Torry sisters — Diana and Michelle — should also make their mark. All the teams are capable are emerging tops in their respective categories,” said a confident Agard. He said the local team had their final opportunity to play on the new championship 18-hole, 7,000-yard Plantations course last weekend and seem quite ready to challenge their guests. “The main complaint was the greens were a bit slow. This most likely was caused by the heavy growth because of the rain. Once the greens are cut it should get faster,” said Agard. The Tournament Director said teams will start arriving today and should be safely lodged at the Hilton Tobago by tomorrow evening.  He expects close to 200 players, supporters and officials for the tournament. On Monday there will be a practice round followed by the annual meeting of the Caribbean Golf Association. Team captains get together in the evening. On Tuesday there will be another practice round with the opening ceremony at 6 pm followed by the President’s Cocktail party. On Wednesday the competition gets underway in earnest with the first round of play. Agard said after every day’s round there will be a happy hour at the scoreboard area followed by dinner at the Hilton Tobago.