The Jamaica Golf Association (JGA) launched the prestigious Jamaica Open Golf Championship at the Constant Spring Golf Club in St Andrew on Thursday.

The championship is to be held at the picturesque Tryall Golf Club in Hanover for the fifth-consecutive year from November 10 to 12. The ProAm tournament is scheduled for November 9, with an 8:30 am shotgun start. It will feature the majority of the pros and the amateurs playing in teams, to share skills, generate camaraderie and introduce the course to the overseas-based golfers.

Sixty players from the United States of America (USA), Canada, Trinidad & Tobago, Bermuda, and host country Jamaica have completed their registration already, including the defending champion, professional Andrew Arft of the USA. The playing format will be stroke play, 18 holes each day for a total of 54 holes.

“We are expecting a very successful event. Based on the entries so far we have surpassed last year’s numbers. The difficulty we had with this tournament in terms of entries was from the pandemic, the numbers have been rising but have not gotten back to the level that they were. We are hopeful every year to increase the prize money because that is what attracts the top professional golfers. The prize money this year if we have a full field is US$110,000,” said Peter Chin, chairman of the organising committee.

He added: “This year the honoree for the event is Johnny Bloomfield, the Jamaican. He won it three years on the trot.”

JGA President Jodi Munn-Barrow expounded on the choice of Bloomfield as honoree.

“Johnny is the only one to win three consecutive Jamaica Opens on two different golf courses. He won his first one at Caymanas (2006) and then the last two (2008 and 2009) at Half Moon Golf Course when we had it at Half Moon. So that itself is a feat. Seymour Rose is another three-time winner but not consecutively so we thought it was just right to award him as the honoree this year for that feat.”

She said that the condition of the Tryall Golf Course was “excellent as usual”.

The JGA boss continued: “I got word from them that they are ready to go. The superintendent is on top of the preparations. The rough will be grown in again like last year so it will make it a little bit more difficult for the pros and the amateurs, but Tryall is challenging on its own and if the wind comes up it will be even much harder. So, I think Tryall is the perfect spot for championships such as the Jamaica Open.”

Two of the sponsors, Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF) and Sports Development Foundation (SDF), were represented by Dr Carey Wallace and Alan Beckford, respectively.

Wallace, executive director of TEF, said: “Golf tourism is, of course, an important diamond amongst diamonds that we have here in Jamaica and so investing in this tournament, which is an international tournament — in fact, it is the number one international tournament here in Jamaica for golf. We believe that it is necessary for us to support the outstanding associations, stakeholders that are putting it together for them to have the resources to take it to higher levels.

Beckford, the SDF general manager, said: “The Sports Development Foundation has historically supported the sport of golf and it goes more than just supporting the golf federation. We also have had a summer camp that we have supported in collaboration with Insports and we have had this camp for a number of years where we have students from the community around Caymanas Golf Course coming out to participate in the camp.

“We have sponsored a ProAm tournament a couple of years as well, so we see golf to be a very important sport among the sports in Jamaica.”

Aqua Bay Resort returns as presenting sponsor for the fifth-consecutive year. The major sponsors include the TEF, Tryall, Jamaica Tourist Board, Jamaica Tours, Grand Palladium, SDF and Vybwear, while the product sponsors are Wata, Juici Patties, Café Blue, Honey Bun and Rainforest.