ROSE HALL, St James — The Jamaica Golf Association (JGA) is increasingly hopeful that the Jamaica Open will be staged in December at the Tryall Club in Sandy Bay and are working hard on securing the requisite sponsorships, says president Peter Chin.

There are some doubts about the staging of the event because of the novel coronavirus pandemic as well as the slow build-up of support from sponsors, but Chin said he was hopeful.

“We are still working hard to get sponsorship for the Open and we are hopeful that come the end of August we will be able to know,” Chin told the Jamaica Observer during last weekend’s National Amateur Championships held at the Half Moon club.

“By then [August] we would have to make a decision whether we are on or not, because the overseas players have to make their travel plans,” he said.

There was a suggestion of using only local-based players, but Chin said that would be watering down the quality of the event that has earned a place on the international calendar.

“For the Open to be successful there has to be an international flavour; it’s an event on the international calender for many of the touring pros in the US and Latin American, so ideally we would like to have it and we are hopeful. Tryall is ready and we are just waiting for the sponsors to come on-board and we are ready to go,” Chin outlined.

Last weekend’s first major event after the lockdown due to the novel coronavirus pandemic was a massive success, the golf official told the Observer.

“The JGA is extremely pleased, we had more entries [60] were received…what it tells us is that people are hungry for golf, and although this was a premier competition and some people would not normally enter, but they still travelled to Montego Bay to play at Half Moon and that says the game is alive and well here,” Chin ended.

— Paul Reid