HANOVER, Jamaica – A battle royale is expected on Tuesday’s final day of the 56th staging of the Jamaica Golf Association (JGA) Open presented by Aqua Bay at the Tryall Club, near Sandy Bay Hanover with five shots separating the top five players after Monday’s second day of the 54-hole tournament.

The reconfigured Tryall course bared its teeth on a hot steamy day that tested the golfers and despite the winds not playing a part the contenders were tested all day.

Americans occupy the first five places with overnight leader Andrew Arft still in front with a six under par 138 score, Ryan Sullivan who had the low score of the day, a six under 66, after a two over 74 on Sunday, is in second place on four under par 140, just ahead of last year’s runner-up Josh Anderson with a three under 141; Dominic Piccirillo who matched his first round one under 71 and Blake Wagoner are both on two under par 142.

Canadian Allan McLean is the only other golfer with an under par score after two days, on one under 143 with Jamaica’s Wesley Brown well placed at seventh with an even par 144 while defending champion Patrick Cover will have a lot of work to do on the final day if he is to retain his title, tied in eight place on one over par 145.

Jamaicans are sitting at the top of the amateur rankings, led by Oshae Haye on nine over par 153, Sean Morris is next with 13 over 157, Trey Williams is third with 15 over 159 and Zandre Roye is 16 over 160.

The day ended on a high after all three players in the final group, including Arft, all birdied the final hole, just minutes after Jamaica’s Wesley Brown also made a three on the par four downhill hole.

American Josh Anderson who was playing with the final group after shooting three under on Sunday, self-reported an infraction which Arft later told reporters none of the other players had seen.

He said Anderson “moved his ball by accident” on the fourth, a one stroke violation which he parred.

Despite not being able to replicate his brilliant first round six under par 66 and only managing an even par 72 yesterday, Arft still leads the field but by two shots, one less than Sunday afternoon, with a two-day score of six under par 138.

After bullying his way over the front nine on the first day, 27 year-old Arft who was taking part in the tournament for the first time, ran into trouble early, bogeying the first two holes and it was uphill all the way from there.

“It was drastically different (from the first day), I got off to a bit of a rough start actually had to get up and down on the third hole just for par,” he said. “So the fact that I was able to kind of steady the ship and even make a nice 20 footer on the last hole for a birdie really just made the day and I’m in a similar position that I was this morning and that’s all I can ask for.”

After a bogie on the 16th hole Arft had some making up to do to keep his lead and said, “Yeah, I just made a bad three putt on 16 and I didn’t hit too good of a wedge shot and I was just walking up to the greens my caddie Jason and I said ‘hey, I need the best read of the day right here right now’ and he said ‘I need the best putt right now’ and I just said okay, and we kind of put it both together and made it happen.”

Sullivan, who was second in 2021 and fifth last year, is following a trend where he has shot lower scores on each day of three times he has contested the event, played the front nine in four under 33 and was six under after birdies on the 11th and 12th holes before he shot a five on the par four 16th but got his seventh birdie of the round to stay in contention.

A confident Sullivan told the Jamaica Observer he was happy with his second-round play and hopes to build on it. “Well (Sunday), I didn’t feel like the score reflected my play, this golf course can really penalise you in spots and I’ve been playing well coming into this,” he said, “So I just kind of had to stay confident with what I’ve been doing and trust that my ball striking would give me an opportunity to get back in contention.”

With the final round to come he felt he was well-placed and said he made adjustments after the first round. “A few different clubs off certain tees, this golf course is very wind dependent, obviously today we got a good day for scoring but with that said, I actually laid back on certain holes to just make sure I found the fairway. I felt like compared to the last two years, there’s a few holes on the back nine were the fairways had gotten skinnier,” he noted. “So there’s obviously a huge importance on hitting those in the fairway and I was able to do that today for the most part with only one bogey”.

Brown improved on his two over par 73 on Sunday with a one-under on Monday to stay in contention for prize money, while other Jamaican professionals, Orville Christie and Sebert Walker Jare both on six over par; Christie shot a two under par on Monday while Walker shot a one-over after his five over the day before.

Cosiar McKenzie is 15 over par, Justin Burrowes is on 16 over followed by Neville Carr on 24 over and Brian Bailey at 33 over par.