CANADA-BASED Unique Vacations’ Vice-President of Sales and Marketing Maureen Barnes-Smith says the Sandals/Baxter Canadian Travel Industry Golf Tournament is gaining momentum, as shown by 50 per cent of its participants being new.

The tournament wrapped up its 28th staging at Sandals Golf and Country Club in St Ann on Friday, and organisers were pleased with the reception to the event by the patrons, who represented various aspects of Canada’s travel industry. In years past the tournament focused on travel advisers, but more stakeholders were included this time to allow for a more fulsome approach to advertising the Sandals Resort chain, and Jamaica as a whole, as tourism destinations.

Barnes-Smith says there is no challenge in marketing the tournament as it does it for itself at this point.

“Honestly, we have to limit,” she told the Sunday Observer. “We try to optimise at 18 teams because as you know, it’s an 18-hole golf course.

“We didn’t even advertise the tournament this year. We just sent it out to the people who have come for the past two years and they invited somebody else, so it’s become such a network event. People in the Canadian travel industry look forward to it; they’ve heard about it, their friends told them that they have to come this year.”

Jamaica’s rainy season typically includes October each year, and 2024 has been no different. With rainfall every day of the past week it would be no surprise if organisers had some concerns about being able to stage the competition. However, Barnes-Smith says no tournament has been staged without the expectation of rain, especially as one year’s event was cancelled for that reason.

“Let me tell you, this golf tournament has a tradition — if it doesn’t rain, it’s not the Canadian Travel Industry Golf Tournament,” she joked. “Everyone who comes to the tournament knows it’s going to rain. But you know what? People come to Jamaica, no matter what.”

This, she said, is because Jamaica has other attractions to showcase its culture to tourists.

The tournament was, however, not adversely affected by rain, and organisers are pleased to have pulled it off, with both days running without hitches. They are also pleased that this year’s special feature, Canadian golf entertainer Todd Keirstead, was well received. Keirstead, who calls himself the Harlem Globetrotters of golf, performed trick shots for those on hand, including but not limited to teeing off from volunteers’ groins without causing harm.

The overall tournament was won by Team 12, which consisted of Arnold Bridgemohan, Janet Long, Cargill Gordon, and Colin Harris. They totalled 126 points while Team 10 (Wendy Hsu, Leo Tam, Tom Liu, and Chris Gregoris) were runners-up on 128. Team 4 (Doug Rollheiser, Jason Jenkins, Dave Harris, and Jaques Gilbert) finished third on 130 points.

Gordon, a Jamaican by birth and Cornwall College old boy, says the most important thing for him was having fun.

“First and foremost, we’re elated; we didn’t expect the win,” he said. “We were having fun, enjoying ourselves — laughter, that was important. I was just relaxing, drinking Red Stripe [beer]. I’m happy about being here and also being a champion.”

Harris, who is originally from Kingston, says he has been golfing for around 20 years but was surprised to win.

“I wasn’t expecting it,” he said. “We came here just to have fun and that’s how it turned out. Everything went right, and we kind of rode that to victory today. Golf is an up and down sport; some days you have it, some days you don’t. Yesterday, [Thursday] we had it — everything was rolling in — [but] today, we didn’t. We shot a -4 today and a -12 yesterday, and the -12 held up for today.”

They now go on to represent Canada in the global tournament, which will be announced soon.

Barnes-Smith is already looking ahead to next year, saying 2025 will be better than 2024.

“The [Tourism] Minister [Edmund Bartlett] said ‘More in 2024.’ Well I’m saying, ‘We’re coming alive in 2025!’ ” she said. “We talked to Jonathan Newnham, the manager for the golf course, and he said, ‘Every year you guys try and make it better. What are you going to do for next year?’

“I said, ‘You’ll have to wait and see.’ But definitely, each year we find ways we could have made it better and try to improve. This year we brought Mr Keirstead, and that elevated the tournament to a different level. Next year he may bring a team of his own celebrities, and it may further elevate the event. We’re always looking at ways and means to make sure that the golfers who come have an amazing golf experience, but for a Jamaican-owned company in Jamaica it makes all the difference in the world because it shows that our talent is limitless.”

Sandals Golf Club will host the American Travel Industry Golf Tournament next weekend.