The expanded Jamaica Golf Association (JGA) Inter-School Golf Competition ended recently with Campion College and Hillel Prep School topping the high and prep categories, respectively.

The four-round competition was held at Constant Spring Golf Club in Kingston using a two-man scramble format with each team playing nine holes per round.

Campion College won the previous two years of the competition which was expanded to include the prep school section this year. The high school teams were Campion College, Hillel Academy, Jamaica College and St Andrew High School for Girls, while the prep school teams were Hillel Academy, Reach Academy, Mona Prep School and AISK.

Campion College won all four rounds to end with 16 points, followed by Hillel Academy on 12, Jamaica College with eight, and St Andrew High School with four points.

Rocco Lopez and Noah Azan with 33, and Michael Lowe and Trey Williams with 34 were the team’s top scorers in the final round.

Caption Michael Lowe said, “Campion is blessed to have many national players on our side which is our secret weapon to taking home the trophy every year. We train as a group and we train individually to reach the maximum potential of each individual player.”

According to Coach Jason Lopez, “We are very fortunate because a lot of our national team players attend Campion College and we have a great participation from the school. We have over 12 golfers who play on the team and we have a few more who are developing golfers, so we are very proud of the Campion College programme. They have been very dominant; they have won the competition every year and we are very proud of them.”

He added, “If you start from the Under-18 you have Michael Lowe; he is the team captain for Campion College this year. He has played for Jamaica, Rocco Lopez has played for Jamaica, Trey Williams has played for Jamaica, Mattea Issa has played for Jamaica, Samantha Azan has played for Jamaica, Aman Dhikan has played for Jamaica. Emily Mayne, who just recently left, has played for Jamaica as well, so a lot of national team kids.”

Hillel Prep School won three of the four rounds to end with 15 points while Reach Academy won one round and placed second three times for their 12 points. Mona Prep School got six points, while AISK got three points. Hillel Academy’s top performers in the final match were Reagan Bisasor and Shasa Redlefsen (33), and Jacob Schnoor and Cyrus Walker (41).

Two of the team members spoke after the final round. Victor Salazar said that it was “fun because I got to play as a team instead of doing by myself all the time”, while Cameron Coe said, “It feels really good to play with people who go to my school and people who I know a lot instead of playing like single or against them.”

According to Alison Reid, chairman of junior golf, the competition has been getting better in terms of number of schools and the quality of golf played by the teams. “It’s been great. It’s been four Tuesdays and it’s been really, really good. The children have come out excited and very enthusiastic about representing their schools. [For] some of them, it’s the only time they have ever played on a team, so for them it’s such a unique opportunity and being able to play golf, which sometimes is their only sport, is good. It’s been a great four weeks and I am thrilled with the turnout and how they went.”

“For the high school children, some of them are getting ready for trials which is in two weeks. So trials is the national junior trials where they try out to play for Jamaica, end of June to early July in Dom Rep, the Caribbean Amateur Junior Championship — the 32nd staging. For the older kids, that’s what they are working towards; it’s huge for them so every time they can get to go on the course and play is just helping them towards their bigger goal.”

She also said that the goal is to win the Caribbean Junior Amateur Golf Championship for the first time. Jamaica came second in 2018 and 2019.