TT golfers to taste ‘Plantations’

GOLFERS bidding to represent Trinidad and Tobago at the Carib-bean Amateur Champ-ionships will get their first opportunity to play on the new Plantations Course in Tobago next month.

They will compete for close to $15,000 in incentives in the first Guardian General Limited/Tobago Plan-tations Invitational Tournament on April 26 and 27 at Lowlands. Details of the competition were given yesterday at a media launch attended by former national golfer Robert Charlett representing Tobago Plantations; John Gonzales, senior vice-president of Guardian General Limited and Tournament Director Neil Giuseppi. Also present was Nigel Aqui of the Golf Association. Venue was the new offices of GGL at Princes Court, Keate Street, Port-of-Spain. Charlett said this year is an important one for golf in TT and he expects the top players to seize the opportunity to familiarise themselves with the testing 7,009-yard  par-72 To-bago Plantations course. Among the locals who are in line for selection on the men’s national team are promising junior players Shane Costolloe currently having an outstanding season so far; Simon Merry, young Ben Martin and Phillip Llanos.

Charlett said since TT swept the Caribbean Amateur Championships nine years ago at home on the St Andrew’s Golf Club course at Moka, Maraval, the fortunes of the team have fluctuated. “If it is our intention to regain our former glory, our golfers must be given every opportunity to hone their skills on the course on which the tournament is to be played,” Charlett said yesterday. He said he intentionally planned the competition to be an Invitational, thereby excluding overseas participation which would have given the opposition a close look at the course. Over the years the Caribbean Champion-ships have served as a springboard for the careers of Stephen Ames, Damian Hale, Chris Richards and others who have blazed a trail on the regional circuit. Senior vice-president of GGL, Gonzales said his company, a member of the Guardian Holdings Group have been supporting sport including golf, athletics and tennis for the past 30 years.

Their association with golf however began in 1993 with the sponsorship of the national team for the Caribbean Amateur Champion-ships and to date more than $150,000 have been expended in the promotion of the game said Gonzales. “We at Guardian practise and endorse teamwork and we are pleased to see that golf has evolved to such a high level by encouraging everyone, corporate and private citizens alike to be a member of the golf team,” said Gonzales yesterday. The GGL/Tobago Plantations Tobago invitational will be contested in four categories: Open, Seniors, Women and Juniors at which gross and nett prizes will be at stake. The overall champions however will be the gross and nett winners of the Open Category. “I can assure you that the course is going to be in excellent condition and will be set up in such a way as to ensure that it provides a true test of golf for all who try to conquer it,” said Charlett.