THE national pairs event to be held at Sandals Golf & Country Club on Sunday will tee off the Jamaica Golf Association’s tournaments for 2014.

The event is a development tournament which will simulate one of the formats used in the Caribbean Amateur Golf Championships. In that annual regional tournament, the Francis & Steele-Perkins Cup, Higgs & Higgs Trophy and the Ramon Baez Figueroa Trophy are contested by players in a four-ball stroke play.

This weekend, players will be competing in handicap categories 0-12, 13-28 and 29-40. The national pairs event has generated much interest in the golfing community as this format is not used regularly.

Among the competitors already entered are members of the national junior and senior teams. Those in the line-up include Jodi Barrow and Maggie Lyn, Michele Gaby and Kei Harris, Robert Chin and Greg Chong, Radcliff Knibbs and Rory Jardine, Sean Morris and Gifford Wilmot.

Brian Roper, chairman of the JGA’s selection committee, has extended an invitation to golfers at all levels to participate in this new and exciting format in which junior golfers will match their skills against adult golfers.

He noted that there are sure to be suprises coming out of the tournament results and that he was looking forward to a good turnout on Sunday.