ROSE HALL, St James — William Knibbs won his first Jamaica Golf Association (JGA) National Amateur title after he beat a small but quality field at the Half Moon Golf c ourse in Rose Hall, St James, shooting a one under par 71 on Sunday’s third and final day of the 54-hole tournament, for a three-day two over par 281 score.

The 25-year-old Kingston-based player never led on any of the two previous days, sharing the lead on Friday and occupying third position coming into Sunday’s round.

Sebert Walker Jr, who led on Saturday afternoon, and defending champion Justin Burrowes, both just finishing their first year in college in the USA, tied for second with six over par 222 scores; Rocco Lopez, who shared the lead on Friday’s first day, was fourth with seven over par 223.

Former champion Sean Morris finished fifth with 13 over par 229 after shooting an eight over par 80 Sunday, with Dr Mark Newnham next in the 0-6 handicap group with a 17 over par 233.

Kemar Brown had a three-day score of 18 over par 234 to lead the 7-12 handicap group, while Shamar Wilson was next with 21 over par 237, and Dr Tommy Lee third with 29 over par 245.

Peter Chin, president of the JGA, was beaming on Sunday and told the Jamaica Observer they had exceeded expectations for the first tournament after the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The JGA is extremely pleased with what we saw,” he said. “We had more entries than we thought; over 60 players showed up and it is not only that, we had fantastic golf. We are happy for the quality of play from the youngsters — Justin and Sebert are still not 20 and the ‘veteran’ William, who is 25, so we are extremely happy with the outcome.”

Knibbs, who saved his best round for the final day, said the National Amateur title completed his local list. “Locally, this is the one title that was missing from my resume, so to get it off my list of milestones is just a great feeling,” he told the Observer.

Knibbs, who shot one over 73 on Friday, two over 74 on Saturday, and one under par 71 on Sunday, said he felt good about his game on a demanding course. “It was a good weekend. this is a very tough golf course; real good test, and I am super happy that I was able to last the test.”

He noted that despite not playing any tournaments since February, just before the lockdown, he had made some preparations. “I have been putting in the extra work the last few weeks just to get ready for this, so yes, I would say I am in ‘golf shape’,” he noted.

His weekend was not without hiccups, though. “I made a couple of mistakes that I would consider unforced errors, a couple that I could have avoided.that would have been the low points, but despite all of that I was still able to keep myself in the game until the end — and that was the biggest strength.”

Walker, who attends Tennessee State University, did not play a lot of golf for the past year and had to put in the work since he came home. “It was a solid, consistent weekend.nothing bigger than a bogey and that is good, but I could not get it going in the birdies; maybe [I’m] not as sharp as I need to be,” he told the Observer.

Burrowes, who is at Florida Atlantic University, admitted he was beaten by a better player on the day. “Honestly, I did not play badly. I did not play as well as I wanted today, I did not putt as well as I wanted to, I just did not make any putts but William just played really well. I don’t think that I really lost it; I just think that he played well and he won.”

Burrowes, who was two under par late on Saturday before bogeying the last two holes to finish on even par, added, “I felt like I was playing well but today [Sunday] I just did not get anything going. I play golf basically every day but tournaments are different and I had not played any tournaments in six months, but [I’m] not using that as any excuse.”

On Sunday, after playing the first five holes at even par, Knibbs dropped shots at the sixth and seventh holes before recovering with three birdies between the ninth and 13 holes.then fell back to even par on the day on the par three 17th hole, before he finished off the weekend with a 15-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole.

Burrowes had his worst day of the weekend with a four over par 76, shooting three over 39 on the front nine, and despite getting his only birdie of the day on the 12th hole, bogeyed the 13th and 14th holes.

Walker looked well set at the start of the day to go all the way but like Burrowes, had his worst day at the wrong time as he carded a five over par 77, just missing a number of short putts.