Justin Burrowes and William Knibbs will represent Jamaica at the 6th Latin America Amateur Championships (LAAC) from January 16-19, in Riviera Maya, Mexico, at Mayakoba’s El Camaleon Golf Club.

They were invited by the LAAC executive committee, on behalf of the Masters Tournament, The R&A, and the United States Golf Association (USGA), based on their World Amateur Golf Ranking position.

Burrowes is ranked at 2,159, while Knibbs is ranked at 2,976.

Burrowes will be competing in the championships for the second-consecutive time, while Kinbbs will be making his first entry.

In 2019, Burrowes’ best round-of-four under par 68 came on day three where he tied for 23rd (217), but had a bad final round and ended the four days in 41st position on 295. That is now behind him as he looks forward to this year’s championships.

“This year’s LAAC in Mayakoba, Mexico, will be my second showing at the event [and] I feel confident going into it, coming off a win at the Jamaica Open where both my weaknesses and strengths were exposed. I have since worked hard on getting my weaker areas better and keeping tidy on the strengths.

“Last year I played pretty well with a solid 68 on the third day, but nerves on the last day got the better of me. I feel this year I’ve learned how to manage my game and nerves much better so I expect a better result,” Burrowes noted.

in preparation for the championships, he has been doing his research.

“I have looked online at the course and it’s a PGA-level course. I have been looking at the course and kinda analysing the course, and been kinda coming up with a game plan before I even get there, just so I can have an idea of what to expect. Coming out of last year I am sure that there will be expectations; I expect to do better and improve from last year,” Burrowes said.

Debutant William Knibbs said he is “really looking forward to this tournament”.

“This is the biggest event in Latin America so this is our region’s version of the US Am. and, of course, the winner of the event gets a spot in the Masters so if I could win it that would be awesome, but I’d say my more realistic goals for the week are for me to make the cut and then just finish as high up on the leader board as I possibly can,” he said.

Jamaica has been participating in the championships since it started in 2015 and has always sent two representatives on an annual basis. Among them are Ian Facey, now a professional golfer, Sean Morris and Jonathan Newnhan. The island’s best-placed golfer in the tournament to date is Facey, who tied for 24th in 2015 with a best round of 68 on the first day and a four-day total of 292 or four over par.

The championships will feature 108 golfers from the Latin America, where host country Mexico will have 10 golfers on the course as per the tournament rules. There is a cutline of the top 50 golfers at the end of the second day.

Some of the competing countries are Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Argentia, Haiti, Chile, Cost Rica, The Bahamas, Trinidad & Tobago, Panama and the Dominican Republic.

The 2019 winner, Alvaro Ortiz of Mexico turned professional after winning the championships. He received an invitation into the USA Masters as one of the many benefits of participating in the LAAC.