THE Jamaica Golf Association (JGA) announced its team to this year’s Caribbean Amateur Golf Championship, which is scheduled for August 8 to 13 in Puerto Rico, where they will compete for the Hoerman Cup for men and the George Teale Trophy for women.

The 12-member team includes two reserve players and the team boasts a mixture of experienced and new players. The team consists of six men and four women plus the two reserve players who only travel to play if one of the named team members cannot participate. The six men are Justin Burrowes, William Knibbs, Mark Newnham, Rocco Lopez, Shamar Wilson and Owen Samuda, while Sebert Walker Jr is the reserve player.

The four female players are Emily Mayne, Kai Harris, Tiana Cruz and Hannah Foster, with Jodi Munn-Barrow as the reserve. The newcomers to the team are 16-year-old Rocco Lopez and Tiana Cruz. Emily Mayne is the youngest female at 16 years old.

Burrowes is coming off a very successful National Senior Trials where he shot the lowest one-day score of 68 to end on par 288 over four days, three strokes ahead of runner-up William Knibbs.

Burrowes spoke about the upcoming Caribbean championship. “The JGA has selected the team and, after going over it, I think that it’s a great choice. It represents Jamaica’s top golfers right now in the country and I feel like we have the talent, we have all the tools it takes. I think we have a great blend of players on the team.

“I feel like we all get along very well, especially with Dr Newnham on the team having that team experience and he’s done it a couple of times before, definitely more than I have – whether its Hoerman Cup or just representing Jamaica. I think that he definitely has been doing it for the longest and just carrying that experience and carrying that to the younger players, I feel like that will just inspire confidence in myself and Rocco, who is younger than us, and William, who is a little older.”

He added. “I just feel like if we go out there and all execute, and all kinda do what we know we can do, we can put ourselves in a position to win. Obviously we can’t control anything that anybody else is doing but I feel like we definitely have the talent of winning [the] Hoerman Cup [as a] team.”

Emily Mayne won the female section of the national trials with a combined score of 316, which included a best-round-of-five over par 77 on the last day. She is preparing for some tough competition but expects the team to do well.

“I am looking forward to the tough competition at the CAGC and am also excited to play alongside the other three girls. Although I am the youngest on the team, I am just focused on preparing myself to do my absolute best and stay consistent. We have a great team so I believe that with teamwork and determination we can do very well.”