National Amateur Golf champion William Knibbs will take to the Caymans Golf Course today for the Jamaica Golf Association’s first tournament of the year.

Golf, like other sports, was suspended due to the ongoing novel coronavirus pandemic.

Knibbs, who copped his first championship last year, will face a quality field including Justin Burrowes, who he defeated in 2020, and other past champions such as Sean Morris and Zandre Roye. He can also expect stiff competition from Mark Newnham and others.

Knibbs said that he is expecting a tough tournament. “ I figure that it’s gonna be a tough tournament these next four days. Caymanas always plays tough especially in the summer when it starts to get windier. It’s gonna get hot of course. All competitors will have to walk so that’s part of the challenge.”

He also spoke about the challenge of playing after a long lay-off in terms of competition due to the pandemic. “I would say physically and technically as it relates to my golf game and myself in general, I am stronger physically and better technically than I was as this point last year. But the difference between last year and this year I would say mentally I was sharper because there had been a lot of tournaments, whereas this year with the regulations… there haven’t been any tournaments thus far in 2021, so mentally there is gonna be some rust for me to shake off. The good thing is that I am not the only one who is gonna have this problem, so I just have to see how it shakes out this week.”

Many-time national amateur female champion Jodi Munn-Barrow will also be on the course. She will be challenged by juniors Samantha Azan and Winni Lau. The females are slated to play for three days.

There will also be a two-day competition for the junior boys and girls. That is slated for Saturday and Sunday.

Several other golfers will be on the course including current President Peter Chin, former President Wayne Chai Chong, and former Cricket West Indies President Dave Cameron, among others.

The four-day, 72-hole National Championship will run from today to Sunday while tee time starts at 7:00 am each day.

The championship is sponsored by Alliance Investment Management.