GRACE, style and technical brilliance will mark the second year of the Jamaica Open under its new pro-am format, which gets under way this afternoon at the Kingston Polo Club, Caymanas Estate.

Four teams, combining amateur and professional players, will take part in the competition. Four Argentinians — all professional players — will strengthen all but one team, Pegasus, which will feature all Jamaicans.

The Shane Chin-led Pegasus — with Leslie Fong-Yee, Andy Vernon, and Mark Yates — will encounter Bin 26 at 3:30 pm, while Scotia Private Client Group clash with Strawberry Hill at 4:30 pm.

Winners of today’s matches will play the final on Sunday at 3:30 pm, after the subsidiary final at 2:30 pm.

The All-Jamaica Pegasus are thinking positively ahead of their match. “I think our team has a good chance of making it to the finals. The team is well-balanced and well-mounted,” said Chin.

“I love the make-up of Team Pegasus. The majority of the team has played together over the years. All our players are pretty versatile, so our team has a lot of flexibility. We have two of Jamaica’s highest ranked players and it’s always fun to play with friends,” added Chin.

On his opponents, Chin noted that “Bin 26 is not a team to be taken lightly as they have Tomas Gandara backing them up. Tomas has been on the winning team two or three times”.

Meanwhile, Zander Melville of Bin 26 described Pegasus as “a great team”. “We will have to play our best game to win,” he added. The Melvilles, Zander and Mark, Gandara and Ricky Wates make up Bin 26.

The Scotia Private Client Group of government minister James Robertson, Craig Russell, John B Gyles, and Jose Iartirigoyen will take on the Strawberry Hill quartet of Mitta Rousseau, Johnathon Dougall, Jorge Donovan, and Juan Humbert.

Strawberry Hill are being hopeful today despite having a lower handicap than the Scotia Group.

Said Rousseau: “I think the Strawberry Hill team has a reasonably good chance of going forward in our match… our team is handicapped at 10 goals, while our opponent are an 11-goal team.

“But we are all from the same club and know each other well, so I am looking for this to be an edge,” added Rousseau.

“Our opponents are well-balanced and have some quick strikers up front. They are going to be hard to beat. Our approach will be to first take our chances when they come; goals win games, then man-to-man marking in defence with a few tricks to get our opponents off-balance. Hopefully that will do it,” he stated.

Players in the Jamaica Open are handicapped between 0 to 6 goals. Argentines Gandara, Iartirigoyen, and Jorge Donovan boast six-goal handicaps, with Juan Humbert being handicapped at three goals.

The Jamaica Open was previously called the Willie De Lisser Trophy for many years. The name change came two years ago when it became a pro-am tournament to raise the handicap level of the competition, while complementing the skills of local players.