Jamaica’s William Knibbs and Justin Burrowes battled the elements in the first round of the 8th Latin America Amateur Championship (LAAC) on Thursday at the par 72 Grand Reserve Golf Course in Puerto Rico for contrasting results.

Knibbs’ one over par 73 is his best-ever single-round score in the LAAC on his third time competing in the championship. His first-round score puts him at 48, along with seven other golfers.

Knibbs said: “Today [Thursday] I shot 73, which I think is the best score I have shot in all of my rounds in LAAC so far. The conditions weren’t overly tough, but they weren’t super easy at the same time. I gave myself a lot of good opportunities today, didn’t capitalise on all of them, [but] didn’t really make many mistakes. I put a decent score together today, so hopefully I am out a little earlier tomorrow, so hopefully there won’t be too much breeze and I can take it low.”

He is on track to make the cut for the first time. The cut will be made at number 50 at the end of the second round on Friday.

Burrowes, who is competing in the LAAC for the fourth time and who made the cut on his three previous appearances, closed the first round in the 84th position along with eight other golfers. He posted five over par 77 for the round after a very good front nine one under pa 35.

“Today was a bit interesting. [I] started off really well [as] I usually start off a little slow and then flow into the round, but it was the opposite today… I started really hot, I had two birdies to start on my first two holes.

“I kinda had something going on the front nine and just kinda hit a wall on the back nine mentally. I feel like I still have a game there, even though on the leaderboard I am way down at the moment, there is nothing that a really good score tomorrow can’t fix,” said Burrowes.

Defending champion 19-year-old Aaron Jarvis of the Cayman Islands shot even par 72 and is currently tied on 31th position with 17 others.

The sole leader is Mateo Fuenmayor of Colombia after shooting six under par 66.

The championship features 180 golfers from Latin American and the Caribbean. Host country Puerto Rico will have nine golfers on the course, as per the tournament rules. There is a cut line of the top 50 golfers at the end of the second day.

The competing countries are Puerto Rico, Cayman Islands, Bahamas, Barbados, Chile, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Argentina, Haiti, , Trinidad & Tobago, Panama, Venezuela, and Jamaica.

Jamaica has been participating in the championships since it started in 2015.