The 2019-2020 junior golf season began last weekend with a Drive, Chip and Putt Championship at Constant Spring Golf Club in Kingston.

Over 40 golfers took to the course for the skills-based championship. They competed in age groups such as 5-7, 7-9, 10-11, 12-13, 14-15 and 16-18. The competitors were primarily from the Corporate Area, Ocho Rios — under the banner of the of the Sandals Foundation — and from Montego Bay.

According to Alison Reid, Jamaica Golf Association’s chairperson for junior golf, “it was a really great day; the weather held up. We had about 40 children, ages five to 17, and they participated in the three main disciplines of golf — so the drive, the chip and the putt.

“We’ve modelled after the one that’s held at Augusta every year and so each child has three chances at a drive, three chances at a putt from different locations, and three chances at a chip from three different locations. The closer they are to the hole the more points they score, the longer the drive the more points they get.”

Reid said the children did well in the skills championship. She said that the event “gives everybody a chance to shine; they may not do well in all disciplines, but they may do well in one. It’s a good way to test because the truth of the matter is that those are the three most important parts of a golf game — chipping, putting and your drive. If you can chip and you can putt, you can win a golf tournament — so it’s important for us to place emphasis on those particular skills.

The main winners on the day were Anthony Hogarth with 38 points, Shasa Redlefsen 63, Victoria Salazar 30, Kimari Morris 52, Mattea Issa 79, Aman Dhiman 105, Christen Chin, Tenny Davis 98, and Tajay Lobban 130.

Reid now looks to the next tournament — the Sandals Foundation Junior Series — which is scheduled for today at Cinnamon Hill Golf Course in Montego Bay.

According to Reid the aim for the year is to win the Caribbean Amateur Junior Golf Championship which is scheduled for Dominican Republic next year, as a follow-up to Jamaica’s second-place finish in 2018 at home and 2019 in The Bahamas.