NEGRIL, Westmoreland — After Sunday’s successful restart of the staging of the Couples Resorts Negril Charity Golf Tournament, the organisers are looking at expanding the event to a full field of 72 players for next year’s renewal.

Forty-six players participated in Sunday’s event — six more than the organisers had planned for — that was held at Negril Hills Golf Course in Westmoreland.

Couples Resorts CEO Glenn Lawrence says while it might take some doing, organisers will plan for a bigger event in 2023.

The one-day event raised $1.4 million that will be used to “fix classrooms” at Green Island High School in Hanover and will also go towards the Montego Bay Animal Haven.

Because of its location, far from the hotbeds of golf in Jamaica, Lawrence said, “Negril is always a tough sell where it’s located, we are thinking to take it to a full field of 72 players, but that will take a lot of selling to the players, especially those in Kingston who make up the majority of players.”

“We will try to make it more attractive but considering this is the first since COVID it was not a bad turnout,” he stated.

Lawrence gave the event, that was held for the first time in two years, thumbs up.

“It went well, ended with 46 players which exceeded our expectations, we know Negril is a tough ask for many players but we had players from Kingston, Ocho Rios and Montego Bay, so we had a good turnout and raised about $1.4m between participation, raffles and donation from the sponsors,” he said.

On the course, the team of national amateur players Sean Morris and John Hayletts were the net winners with a 63.5 score, while Oshaye Haye and Clive Chambers were the gross winners with a score of 65.

Morris also won the putting contest in a play-off, while there were four winners of the closest to the pin contest — Murine Blake at the fourth hole, Kerry Washington at the seventh hole, Vernal Campbell at the 10th hole and Philip Dewar at the 16th hole.