HANOVER, Jamaica- American Patrick Cover shot an eight under par 64 to lead the 55th Jamaica Golf Association Open after Sunday’s first round at Tryall Club in Hanover.

The 26-year-old Cover, who is the 2019 champion, holds a four shot lead over the rest of the field with Jamaican professional Wesley Brown in third place on three under 69 after being six under at one point.

Jamaica’s Justin Burrowes, the amateur champion from last year, was in a three-way tie for the lead in the amateurs after shooting four over par 76.

Play was held up for about 45 minutes after persistent rain forced the players off the course and this resulted in play going later in the day than scheduled, but the weather is expected to improve over the final two days.

Cover, the North Carolina native, had a great round and was bogey free the entire day, leading compatriot Ryan Linton, who shot a four under par 68, followed by Brown and defending champion Michael Maguire both on three under.

Cover told OBSERVER ONLINE that the key to his good round was his putting.

“The round was great, stress free with no long putts for par. I was just tapping in but I putted really well. I made a ton of putts from 10 to15 feet,” he said.

Cover, who ended his round with back-to-back birdies on the 17 th and 18 th holes, admitted the rain might have helped.

“The course played longer as the entire course was softer but I am not sure it made it easier, just different,” he said, adding that his plans for the second day was “do the same thing, I will try to keep it bogey free and go from there.”

Brown, who was in the first group to tee off under cloudy conditions at 7:00am on Sunday, played his best front nine ever at a Jamaica Open, shooting five under par and said, “my round was good, I wish I held my six under par coming in but three under is not a bad start for the first day.”

He said he might have gotten lucky with the draw.

“I have always been behind the eight ball coming in but today at this tournament, this year, I am in a good position so far, I don’t know what the other scores are going to be, but if you go for your ball and put yourself in a good position you can go low here as it is soft and everything is sticking, it’s just solid contact make a few puts and you are few under par,” he argued.

Brown, who finished his round just after mid-day on Sunday, added that he expected a few others to come in with low scores, “but I expect to be right at the top (of the leaderboard).”

And while he said he did not always like playing too early, “this time was different, I got the fresh greens this morning going out early and we were through nine holes when the rains came and play was delayed and I was happy for that, I normally don’t like going out first but today was my luck.”