Ryan Lue and Maggie Lyn were crowned national amateur golf champions recently at the Caymanas Golf Club after three days of grueling competition under challenging hot and windy conditions.
Lue, still a junior, achieved the milestone ahead of a very accomplished field which included the defending champion Zandre Roye and former champions Oshae Haye and Sean Morris.
Lue posted four over par 76 on the first day, one over par 73 on the second day and three over par 75 in the final round for a total score of eight over par 224 to gobble up his competitors and win his first championship by six shots.
His scorecard was checkered with bogies - four in the first round, five in the second round and another six in the last round plus a double bogey but that was cushioned by four birdies in the second round and five in the final round.
"It feels good, especially to come back home. First event of or second event of my summer schedule and it's good to come home, win, and you know, time to build off of that and keep it going," Lue said on his performance.
"I think the course is definitely set up very well, especially today. They put some tee boxes that I've never played there before and I've been playing here ever since I started, so I think the course is good. The conditions were tough, a lot of wind. It picked up like on my fourth hole almost every single day. So, I'm very happy to play well in these conditions, and you know, get the job done" added Lue.
Oshae Haye and Trey Williams both ended the championship with scores of 14 over par 230 to be tied for second place while defending champion Zandre Roye was a further four strokes back on 18 over par 234.
Williams and Lue posted the lowest single round score of the championship, of one over par 73 in the first round and the second round respectively. That score gave Williams the lead at the end of the first day.
Ladies’ champion Maggie Lyn was pleased with topping the leaderboard which she had not done in a long time.
She got the better of former champion Michele McCreath by two strokes after posting a combined score of 261 to McCreath’s 263.
Former Jamaica Golf Association president Wayne Chai Chong bagged the Men Super Senior 0-12 category by one shot ahead of Radcliff Knibbs who lead the category at the end of the first round with a one over par 73 score.
Chai Chong posted 15 over par 231 while Knibbs scored 232. Former category champion Mike Boyd placed third after scoring 24 over par 240.
On the professional side, Orville Christie narrowly defeated former junior standout Jonathan Newnham by one shot. Christie’s 74, 73, 75 resulted in a combined score of 222 while posted 75, 73, 75 for 223. Sebert Walker Jr’s 229 (77, 76, 76) was good enough for third place.
Dr Mark Newnham, vice president of the Jamaica Golf was pleased with the level of competition during the championship.
"Well, as you know, we feel that our national amateur, if you're gonna crown somebody, and I guess it occurs and applies to any sport, we want to make sure that the competition is at a very tough course. Caymanas was tough this weekend. It was in pretty good shape and we had most of our top players in all the divisions competing. So, we feel that we had a really good championship and as I said at prize-giving, the cream needs to rise, and certainly we think that it did rise to the top at the end of the championship because we had some really good scores, some really good matches, and some fantastic winners."