National golf champion Zandre Roye and one of the island’s best junior golfer Ryan Lue were put to the test at the recent Latin America Amateur Championship (LAAC) at the Pilar Golf Club in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Roye had a good first round, scoring three over par 75 and was hoping for a better second round in order to make the cut and play all four rounds of the championship. But he suffered hiccups in the second round and scored nine over par 81 for a two-day total of 12 over par 156 and did not make the cut for the second-consecutive year.

Lue, in his first attempt at the championship, had a rough first-round score of 14 over par 86 which landed him way down the leaderboard. His second-round score of nine over par 81 — though better than the first round — did not help him to make the cut either. His two-day total was 23 over par 167.

Both golfers gained valuable experience at the championship, which is expected to help them to be better prepared if given the opportunity to compete at the LAAC in the future.

Jamaica’s best placement at the championship to date is 24th by Ian Facey back in 2015.

This year’s winner was Justin Hastings of the Cayman Islands. He shot 16 under par 272 for the win. He became the second Caymanian golfer to win the championship after Aaron Jarvis won it in 2022.

This year was the 10th staging of the LAAC.

The championship boasted 107 golfers from 28 countries. The list included some familiar competitors such as Barbados, Bermuda, Puerto Rico, the Cayman Islands and Trinidad and Tobago who compete in the Caribbean Amateur Golf Championship.