TRYALL, Hanover — American Andrew Arft took a three-stroke lead after shooting a six under par 66 on Sunday, the first day of the 56th staging of the Jamaica Golf Association (JGA) Open at Tryall Club, near Sandy Bay, Hanover.

Twenty-four hours after he arrived in the island for the first time and after playing a few selected holes on the front nine, the 27-year-old Florida native leads last year’s runner-up Josh Anderson who shot a three under 69, followed by four players who shot one under 71 – Bradley Arrington, Logan Bryant, Allan McLean of Canada, and Dominic Piccirillo.

Defending champion Patrick Cover of the USA finished the day tied for 10th place with Jamaican Wesley Brown at one over par 73 while Sebert Walker Jr and Justin Burrowes, who were playing their first rounds as professionals, shot five over 77 and 10 over 82, respectively.

Arft, who described his first round as “a birdie fest on the front nine and a brawl on the back nine”, said he had a good first day.

“It was awesome, I really enjoyed it, I got here yesterday and got the chance to go out there [on the course] and I did not want to play all 18 holes and so my caddie. he kind of picked and chose the holes we played, kind of the tougher ones and he was great all day and I love the golf course, love the holes on the water and that back nine stretch is quite a test to golf.”

After carding six birdies on the front nine and another on the 11th hole, Arft was seven under and flying but the newly reconfigured course bit back and he dropped strokes on the 12th and 14th holes before rallying with a birdie on the 15th hole.

He said the last few holes presented a challenge.

“It is tough stretch, I hit a great drive on the 15, hit a great eight iron to about four feet made that for birdie and two putted from 50 feet on 16, I mean on 14 through 17, you just trying to keep the ball in play and hold on, in my opinion, so I did that very well today.”

Despite not having his best day, in this third trip here, Cover was not worried.

“It definitely wasn’t my best day, but [the coarse] was playing kind of tough, they’ve narrowed a lot of the fairways since since last year, so if you hit it in the rough, its kinda hard,” he told the Jamaica Observer. “I played okay, I just I screwed up to par fives. I made a double and a bogey on the par fives and usually I birdie those holes, so that’s five shots different there; it was all fine, I have played a lot of good rounds here and today just wasn’t doesn’t wasn’t one of my best but it was it was still okay.”

Jamaica’s Oshae Haye and veteran Sean Morris leads the amateur section both with scores of three over par 75, followed by Trey Williams on six over and Trinidad’s Ayden Ali who was tied on nine over par with Barbadian Shaquon Harding.