TRYALL, Hanover — Canadian Dustin Risdon shot a four under par 68 to lead by a stroke after yesterday’s first round of the 54th Jamaica Golf Association (JGA) Open presented by Aqua Bay at the Tryall Club, in Hanover.

Risdon, who is no stranger to Jamaica, having played the LGA Open all three times at Tryall, several times at Half Moon White Witch and also the BMW Latino America tour stops at Cinnamon Hills, has a one-stroke lead over four other players — American Stephen Grant, Trinidadian Benjamin Martin, and Americans Landon Michelson and Carter Morgan, who are on three under 69 scores.

Under blue skies and after the winds came in off the ocean in the afternoon the 68-man field battled a tough course as they chased the US$20,000 first prize after the 54 holes event ends on Wednesday afternoon.

The organisers have added more prize money, the top senior will get US$4,000 and the top local professional gets US$1,000.

Among the 14 amateurs is 14-year-old Hillel schoolboy Ryan Lue, the youngest player ever to enter the championships. He shot a creditable five over par 77 as William Knibbs, last year’s amateur champion, shot a two under par to lead after being three under at one stage before carding a double bogey on the 17th hole.

Risdon, who is yet to win on Jamaican soil, told the Jamaica Observer his “round was really good today. I made a couple of bad swings but I got away with them, got kinda lucky in a few spots. I didn’t make any bogeys out there, so that was pretty nice”.

He said the course played faster than on Sunday’s Pro-Am “and I expect it will get drier and faster as we go on”.

Grant, who has played the JGA Open all three years it has been staged at Tryall Club, said, “Conditions were favourable on the front nine and carried on to about 12th or 13th holes and the course was playing nice until in the afternoon when the wind kicked up, so we just had to buckle down and hang on and make some good pars and steal some birdies on the back nine.”

For today’s second round Grant said patience was key. “Just some patience out there. I felt like my front nine I could have gone fairly low, maybe five or six under, and to only get through with two, it was a little disappointing, but then we just managed to kinda reset and steal a couple coming in and just stay patient because if you get ahead of yourself on this golf course it will bite you very quickly,” he said.

Risdon had two birdies each on the front and back nines, getting birdies at seventh and eighth holes and two more on the 11th and 16th holes.

Martin battled all day, started well with birdies at holes three and four, then got an eagle on the par five sixth hole to lead with four under par early but gave back the shots with a bogey on the seventh and a double bogey on the ninth to turn at two under par thanks to a birdie at the eighth hole.

The Trinidadian also bogeyed the 10th hole before getting birdies on the 14th and 16th holes.