Golf: National team takes shape at final qualifying round

Five golfers who helped secure the Cayman Islands Golf Association (CIGA) first Caribbean title in the programme’s history have booked their spot on the team once again after the sixth and final round of the CIGA National Team qualifiers held Saturday (30 March) at the North Sound Golf Club.

Using the best cumulative score from four of six rounds including one score from the Ritz-Carlton Golf Course, 20-year old Andrew Jarvis topped the men’s field with a final round even-par 71.

“Overall, I am very pleased with how I performed in the qualifiers” said Jarvis. “I battled through a bad wrist injury but towards the end, I couldn’t ask to hit the golf ball any better. On the last day, everybody put in a good fight for the top spot, both Aaron (Jarvis) and Payten (Wight) were not backing down.”

Brother Aaron finished second overall in the men’s national rankings, shooting a final round best two-under par 69. The 16-year old was the top golfer for Cayman in last July’s Caribbean title win, along with reigning National Champion Payten Wight.

“I played pretty solid throughout the day,” said Jarvis. “I got off to a good start being two-under through five holes. I finished one-under through nine, and kept the momentum through the final nine holes, birdied seventeen to finish two-under.”

Wight finished in a four-way tie for second on the day shooting one-under par 70. The 24-year old will play on his sixth national team.

“It’s always an honour to make the national team,” said Wight. “We have a good group of guys again, so hopefully we canC

Also shooting one-under par was the 2017 National Champion, 15-year old Justin Hastings.

“I thought I played well, we finally got some good weather conditions so we took advantage of that,” said Hastings. “It’s a cool experience to play on the national team, it’s my third year, so I love to go out and play against some great competition against other islands.”

Veteran Michael Wight (-1, 70) and Joel Dodson (+5, 76) placed fifth and sixth overall to round of the men’s national team.

For the women’s team, defending junior Caribbean champion Holly McLean finished first overall shooting a final round eight-over par 79. This will be the 14-year old’s second national senior team appearance. She’ll be joined by Isabel Mendes who shot a final round eight-over 79, and Lauren Needham, who finished third overall.

In addition, the winner of both the men’s and women’s National Championships held 27-28 April will gain automatic qualification onto Cayman’s national team. This would potentially knocked the sixth placed men’s golfer and the third placed women’s golfer out of contention.

View all the results of the CIGA National Qualifiers here.