ROSE HALL, St James — Hosts Jamaica came up just three shots short of beating the Dominican Republic on Friday’s tense, but pulsating final day of the Hoerman Cup competition as the 59th Caribbean Amateur Golf Championships came to a climax at the White Witch course at Half Moon Club in Rose Hall, St James.

Jamaica came into the final day three shots behind the Dominican Republic, and despite a charge led by low-score winner Jonathon Newnham, who led all four days, the hosts came up agonisingly short.

The Dominican Republic, who were winning their fifth title and second on Jamaican soil, carded a 58 under par 1,210 score, just getting home ahead of the Jamaican team who totalled 60 under par 1,212 with first round leaders and defending champions Puerto Rico finishing third with 73 under par 1,225.

Robert Chin, the Jamaican team manager, was full of praise for all the teams.

“I can’t say anything more about how well we did… we wanted the big prize the Hoerman Cup but we fell just short, but overall we were tied for one title, took second in three more and were fifth in the other, (and) that was good.”

Jamaica placed second in the Arthur Zaidie Trophy for the overall points, behind Trinidad and Tobago with Puerto Rico third.

The United States Virgin Island’s won their second George Teale Memorial trophy in three years, shooting a brilliant four over par 76 final day score to overtake defending champions Puerto Rico and winning by three shots, 39 over par 615 to 42 over par 618.

The consistent Amira Alexander shot the only under par score of the competition, carding a two under 70 yesterday to be the low scorer with 12 over par 300.

The Jamaican women finished fifth with 66 over par 642, 27 strokes off the lead.

Madelyn Picininni was the top individual Jamaican player, tied for seventh with a 34 over par 322, Tiana Cruz was tied for ninth, three strokes behind her teammate, while Kei Harris was 16th with a 52 over par 340.

Jamaica and the Bahamas were tied for the Higgs and Higgs title after the team of Peter Chin and Easton Williams shot a five under par 67 to finish on four under 284, with Trinidad and Tobago third five shots back.

The Dominican Republic ran away with the Ramon Baez Trophy, winning with 11 under par 277, nine shots ahead of Jamaica who rallied with a two under par 70 for a four-day score of two over 290.

Trinidad won the Francis/Steel-Perkins trophy with a five under par 283, two shots better than Jamaica with the USVI in third place.

Chin also told the Jamaica Observer that “this was a brilliant, brilliant week”.

“I have to take my hat off to the players, all of them, the team played brilliantly. Last night we knew we were in the mix and we just told the players to take each hole one shot at a time and we were so close,” said Chin.

Newnham, who shot three over 75, his highest of the four days, but he won the individual title with two over par 290, four shots over the Dominican Republic’s impressive Radham Pena, who had mixed feelings.

Hoerman Cup team captain Sean Morris, who tied with teammate Williams Knibbs for 25th place on 25 over par 313 said the results showed that Jamaica’s amateur golf was improving and soon will be in a position to make a run at the Hoerman Cup title.

“Overall the guys fought hard, but we came up just short,” he said. “The Dominican Republic team led us by three shots over night, but they leaked a lot of oil and came under a lot of pressure at the very end,” he said.

Morris said they had a lot to build on going forward.

“This was a great effort, Jamaica has not been in this position in a long time, more than 10 years and this just shows how much talent we have here and we are positioning ourselves to win soon.”

Francisco Bordas, the manager for the Dominican Republic team, admitted they were pushed to the limit on the final day.

“Today was too close,” he told the Observer. “It was scary but we won and that was good.”

He said, however, that the quality of the tournament this week meant all the players from the nine countries taking part were winners.

“This is a fraternity, we met a lot of new people and had a great experience.

“We are so happy, because the Jamaican people were very nice, the Jamaican organisers and the Jamaican team, they played us hard,” he said dedicating the victory to the late Dominican players Marcus Mirenze who died after they won in 2006 when the tournament was held here in Jamaica.

Also on Friday, Ian Facey finished tied for 14th place on 22 over par 310, while Owen Samuda was 18th overall on 24 over par 312.

The Dominican Republic’s Pena finished second to Newnham with six over 294 with Puerto Rico’s Jeronimo Esteve third on 10 over par 298.

Karina Sanchez was second in the individual section of the George Teale with 18 under par 306 after shooting seven over par 79 yesterday while Puerto Rico’s Valeria Pacheco was third with 21 over par 309.