Rocco Lopez and Mattea Issa are set to lead Jamaica’s team to the 31st Caribbean Amateur Junior Golf Championship on June 26-July 1 in Puerto Rico at the Palmas Del Mar golf course.

The team was selected after the recent three-day trials at the Caymanas Golf Club in St Catherine.

Team Manager Alison Reid had a lot to say about the pre-competition activities and the team composition.

“The junior national team for the 31st staging of the Caribbean Amateur Junior Golf Championship has been selected. We have 17 players, which include four reserves. We have four new players on the team: Lek Drummond in 15 and under, Shasa Redlefsen and Kemari Morris in 13 and under boys and Alessandra Coe in 13 and under girls. The 13 and under girls is the only category that we are not fielding a full complement.

“We started training right after Easter holidays and we will travel to Cinnamon Hill, Half Moon and Tryall to let the children experience different courses so they are prepared for any eventuality and any kind of situation that the course in Puerto Rico may present.

“It’s important for the children not to play the same course and get too comfortable, your game needs to travel as they say in golf. You need to go to a new course and play and not be afraid of water or sand bunkers or lots of trees or wind, so it’s really important for us to expose the children to all kinds of different kinds of situations,” she said.

The other members of the team are Aman Dhiman and Trey Williams in the boys’ 18 and under, Ryan Lue and Aarron Ghosh in the boys’ 15 and under category, and on the girls’ side, Eryn Blakeley in the 18 and under, Samantha Azan in the 15 and under category. The reserves are Tenny Davis, Cameron Coe, Winni Lau and Mia Cunningham.

National coaches Jason Lopez and Jonathan Newnham, as well as Jodi Munn-Barrow, president of the Jamaica Golf Association and secretary of the Caribbean Golf Association, will travel with the team as they try to take hold of the Hank James country trophy for the first time.

Jamaica’s best position to date in the championship is second in 2018 when it was held here and in 2019 at the PGA rated golf course in Nassau, Bahamas. Jamaica came third at the last staging of the championship in 2021.