ROSE HALL, St James — Jamaica’s Ian Facey was in a five-way tie after yesterday’s first round of the 54-hole 51st Jamaica Golf Association Open at the Half Moon course in Rose Hall after shooting a two under par 70 in what was a testing opening day for the field that included a number of experienced players.

Despite an unusually rainy period preceding the staging of the event, the course stood up well to the tests yesterday, but play was slow for most of the day with up to three groups waiting on one tee on one occasion.

Facey, who represented Jamaica at the Pan-American Games in Canada and the Hoerman Cup two years ago and who turned professional earlier this year, shot a one under par 35 for the front nine after he started on the first tee. He was at three under after 12 holes before mixing three birdies with two bogies on the back nine.

Luke Johnson of the United Kingdom and three Americans — David Sanders, Stephen Grant and Tarik Can — are also on two under 70 going into today’s second round.

It is close going on the top of the leader board with eight other players, including Jamaica’s Delroy McDonald, who are one stroke back on one under par 71 with another seven players on even par 70.

Sean Morris, one of the island’s top amateurs, is second in his section on two over par 74 after a spectacular implosion over the final five holes saw him drop six shots after he was sitting pretty at four under at the 13th hole with five to go.

American Nikita Gubenko leads the amateurs with an even par 72, Jamaicans Justin Borrowes is in third place on three over 75 and Owen Samuda is a stroke back on four over 76. Canadian Robert Sterling rounds out the top-five with eight over 80.

Yesterday’s round was the best for Facey since he turned professional earlier in the year and said it was good for his confidence which had taken a blow after a slow start to his professional career.

“I haven’t really had that great a year so far, my pro career kind of started a lot slower than I expected. I played a few tournaments, but never made any money, I missed a few cuts and my confidence was low so after June I wrote off most of this year… I started working out and got my body stronger, worked on my swing and get ready for a good 2018,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

— Paul Reid