OCHO RIOS, Jamaica — After a very good nine-hole first day by golfers yesterday, Miguel Arthurs, general manager of the Sandals Golf and Country Club, said that organisers are expecting an exciting day two full of fireworks as the fourth staging of the 2016 Sandals Latin American Travel Agents Golf Tournament continues today at the Sandals Golf and Country Club in Ocho Rios.

Arthurs said that even though day two promises to be an interesting affair as the course is still in great condition for excellent scores, the main focus of the tournament is to promote local golf and to raise funds to help the junior programme progress.

“The focus of the tournament is really for two causes. The first one is to showcase Jamaica, particularly in golf and, by extension, the local tourism product. This is where the travel agents travel from all over such as Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela and they get to see what Sandals Country Club has done differently this year. The experience started from they got to the airport all the way till they get to this location.

“The other part is, it is really a fund-raising event that featured us raising funds for Sandals Foundation, which goes towards maintaining the Sandals Foundation junior golf programme,” Arthurs told the Jamaica Observer.

“Today was phenomenal. Travel Agents are very competitive as an industry and so that competitive nature flows over into the golf tournament. We had persons trying to outdress each other, but more importantly they tried to outplay each other on the golf course.

“They enjoyed our food here, but most importantly they enjoyed the greens and the improvement we have made on the course, even adding sand track on driving range.

“Expect us to finish with a big bang; we are hoping to really generate a lot of revenue from our longest drive and closest to the pin competitions, which are our internal competitions within the golf tournament, and the funds raised from there will directly go into the Sandals Foundation, so we can see some more superstars like Wesley Brown and Romaine Evans.

“Last year we raised US$1,000 and this year are expecting to raise more than that,” Arthurs added.

Meanwhile, Team Two which comprised Manuel Garcia, Ignacio Gaona, Andres Vicuna and Claudio Cruz from Chile are the leaders after day one. They lead with a score of 65 ahead of Team 13 from Mexico (Magali Arellanes, Carlos Enriquez, Elizabeth Pedralaz and Adrian Carrera) on 68, and in third place on 70 points is Team 11 from Puerto Rico, comprising Angel Cepeda, Reynaldo Ramos, Jose Cirino and Selia Munoz.

The tournament will conclude today as well as the presentation ceremony to be held at Sandals Ochi Beach Resort.