TRYALL, Hanover – Despite being the highest placed Jamaican professional in the 53rd Jamaica Golf Association (JGA) Open that ended at Tryall Club in Hanover, on Tuesday, Half Moon’s Orville Christie just missed a share of the US$75,000 prize after he finished 16th overall with a 10 over par 226 score.

Only the top 15 finishers in the professional section receive prize monies and the Jamaican just missed out by two strokes after England’s Jack Floydd finished 15th with a eight over par 224 score.

Despite being unable to secure sufficient practice time on the Tryall Club course, Christie, who was among the two players from St James to participate in the event, improved his scores from last year when he shot 15 over par 231 for 33rd place.

This year, he shot rounds of four over par 76, five over par 77 and one over par 73 and said while he felt good about his improved performance, he felt he would have done better if he had access to practice at Tryall.

“I feel good about that,” he said about his 16th position and first amongst the local-based players.

“I have worked hard, I didn’t get the scores that I really wanted to shoot, but I think I still did well enough.”

Christie said lack of practice on the newly refurbished course at Tryall might have seen even better play.

“I did not get the chance to prepare well, as you know the Tryall course is one of the elite courses and I did not get a lot of chances to play here,” he said on Tuesday.

“The speed of the greens and the slopes we are not used to as someone who plays at Half Moon and I was not ready for these speeds on the greens and made a lot of three putts and that was where I lost a lot of shots, but I did well.”

After a tough four days that started with the Pro-Am on Saturday, Christie said he was ready for some rest, adding that there are plans for one last event later this month before he starts preparing for the 2021 season.