Robert Woods finishes off the 6th hole during Saturday’s tournament.

By Mwangi Ngamate
mwangi@caymannetnews.com

Early next year will see the selection of the golf team to represent Cayman Islands at the Caribbean Amateur Golf Championships and 2009 Island Games.

In making the announcement to the press last week, Paul Woodhouse, spokesman of the North Sound Club and the Cayman Islands Golf Association, said the qualifications will follow last year’s format, which include a six-stroke play qualifying rounds in total, including 36 hole Island championships, with the best four from six scores to count.

The leading qualifiers will be invited to represent Cayman Islands in both events. The team will consist of five men, three ladies, two mid-amateurs, two seniors over 45 and two seniors over 65. The men’s amateur champion, if otherwise eligible, will automatically qualify for the section of the team representing his age category. The ladies amateur champion will automatically qualify for the Ladies team.

“Otherwise, qualification will be based upon performance in the qualifying competition but the organizing committee reserves the right to select players, regardless of performance or entry in the qualifying competition, if they consider it in the best interests of the team,” read the rules of the selection by the club.

The rounds will include round one to be held on Saturday 10 January. The second round will be held on Saturday 14 February, round three a month later, and round four for Saturday 18 April.

The fee of CI$150 covers entry into the four qualifying tournaments above, Mr Woodhouse said, and cheques should be made payable to CIGA. Those participating in the championship must have been a resident of the Cayman Islands for at least one year to qualify to represent the country.

The last two rounds also constitute the Amateur championship. Competitors are required to play in 4 out of the 6 rounds of the qualifying competition. The highest two scores of a player playing in all 6, or the highest score of a player playing in 5 rounds of the qualifying competition will not be counted. Otherwise all scores in the qualifying competition will count. Entry is limited to 60 players with priority being given to lowest handicap index in case of over-subscription.

Mr Woodhouse said that the association is going to be sending four men to next year’s Island Games. The games will be held in Aland from 27 June to 4 July. Aland Island is controlled by Sweden and is an archipelago in the Baltic Sea situated at the entrance to the Gulf of Bothnia.

The Caribbean amateur Golf championship will be held in the Turks and Caicos Islands from 2 to 9 August.

Cayman hosted these summer championships in August. Mr Woodhouse, commenting on the championship, said it was a success because the men finished second overall. “This arguably was the best performance by any Cayman sports team at a major sporting championships (game) in many years, if not ever,” said Mr Woodhouse.

Among those who played were Andy Newton and Don Stewart, Samantha Widmer, Siobhan Ribbins, Colin McKay/Trent Riggins, Joel Dodson, Robert Woods, Robert Chilman, Steve Wallace and Alasdair Hall-Jones.