Jamaica scored 127 points to nab the third spot in the 33rd Caribbean Amateur Junior Golf Championship at the Punta Blanca Golf Club in the Dominican Republic, August 1-3.

The island’s best placement in the championship to date came in 2018 at home, and again in 2019 in The Bahamas, when it placed second.

Defending champion Puerto Rico scored 147 points, but was dethroned by hosts Dominican Republic after posting 154 points. The Bahamas were fourth on 104 points, while the Cayman Islands was followed on 43 points.

The third and final day started with Jamaica needing 19 points to catch the leader Dominican Republic and 16 points to equal second-place team Puerto Rico, but it was not to be after the teams scored 41, 51 and 47 points, respectively.

Boys 15 & Under player Aman Dhiman posted the best score of all the Jamaican players on the final day. His score of two over par 74 included one eagle, two birdies, four bogeys and a double bogey.

Dhiman was the only player to post two days of under par scores of one under par 71 and two under par 70 on day one and two, respectively. His three-day total was one under par 215.

He ended his group in third place behind Kurt Rivers of the Turks & Caicos Islands with a combined score of 10 under par 206 (68, 67, 71). Trey Williams 226 for eighth and Ryan Lue 228 for ninth place were the other Jamaicans in the age goup.

Rocco Lopez, one of three Boys 18 & Under player, posted the lowest score of the three days. He scored four under pay 68 on day two, while his three-day combined total was 227, after scoring 77 and 82 on day one and three, respectively.

Lopez ended in seventh position in his group which went to Gustavio Rangel of Puerto Rico and Julio Rius of the Dominican Republic, who both ended the championship on seven under par 209. Radino Lobban 234 and Michael Lowe 242 were 11th and 13th, respectively.

Aaron Ghosh, 245, and Ramsay Wayner, 259, were eighth and 13th, respectively, in the Boys’ 11-13 category. Rodrigo Huerta of the Dominican Republic took that group with a score of three under par 213.

On the girls’ side, Captain Emily Mayne took the third spot. She scored 77, 75 and 79 for a total of 231 at the end of the championship. Mayne was just two strokes behind the 18 & under group leader Darianys Guzman of Puerto Rico who ended on 229.

Mattea Issa and Winni Lau tied for fourth in their 15 & Under group with total scores of 246 each. Dominican Republic’s Inyoung Yoo (228) took the group.

In the final age group girls’ 11-13, Samantha Azan bagged second place, for the best individual placement of any player on the Jamaican team after scoring 251 (88, 78 & 85).

Anoushka Khatri 273 (93, 89 & 89) was fourth, while Maria Maimari 236 (77, 77, 82) of the Dominican Republic won the group.

Jamaica Coach Jonathan Newham, who holds the distinction of being the youngest junior to represent Jamaica at the senior level at age 13, summed up the team’s perfromance, saying “the team did the best they could”.

“I am proud of them for fighting till the end, no one gave up, everybody was pushing. It was awesome to see them support each other coming in. [There are] some positives to build on and we will learn from this year and come back stronger in the years to come,” he said.