JAMAICA’S Zandre Roye and Oshae Haye were challenged during Thursday’s first round of the 11th Latin America Amateur Golf Championship (LAAC) at Lima Golf Club in Peru.

Both golfers spent their first round battling cold conditions on the narrow, par-70 golf course which they were competing on for the first time.

Roye began with a bogey but corrected that immediately with a birdie on the following hole. The rest of his scorecard showed seven bogeys and a double bogey for a nine-over-par 79 as he closed the round in 80th place, tied with seven other golfers.

Roye indicated that it was a rough start but was looking forward to the opportunity to improve on his score and possibly make the cut and continue in the championship.

“Today was kinda rough — [I] got off to a not-so-great start, didn’t hit the ball pretty well, [but] managed to make a few pars coming in, to salvage whatever [of] the round was [still attainable]. Learned a lot.

“[I am a] little bit further back than I wanted to be but [I’ll] go out again tomorrow [and] reset. The golf course condition is scorable; [I] just got to hit the ball in the right places and take advantage of the hole when it comes,” Roye said.

Haye had a good start with a par five on hole number one. His troubles, however, began with a double bogey on hole number two then a short recovery with par scores on holes number four and five.

The balance of his scorecard showed five bogeys and three double bogeys but he ended the back nine with four par holes between the 15th and 18th holes. Haye closed his first round on 13 over par 83 in 101st place, along with three others.

Andy Schonbaum of Argentina and Andrés Martínez Benedetti of Venezuela were tied for first place at the top of the leader board after posting similar scores of four under par 66 for the first round.

There are 28 countries and over 100 golfers competing at the championship this year.

The champion will receive a coveted invitation to compete in the Masters Tournament and exemptions into The Open and the US Open.