The bulk of the Jamaican team of junior golfers returned home Friday night with historic trophies from the 34th Caribbean Amateur Junior Golf Championship in Puerto Rico.

No female had ever won any age group category in the Caribbean championship, but that did not deter Samantha Azan and Emily Mayne from stamping their class on the event and writing their names in the history books of local junior golf.

Mayne was particularly pleased with her performance.

“Day one the conditions were very rough as we had a lot of showers, very hard showers throughout the day, so it was hard to keep dry, but I just tried my best to stay focused and just stick from fairway to green and it ended up working out.

“Day two I shot my best score which was one under for the tournament and the best round for the girls. That day was kinda just me telling myself I needed to do the best I could to kinda move up the table because by then I was in third and I wanted to move up to first or at least second, so on the last day I would have not much to do. And then the last day nerves did get to me a little bit but I ended up sticking to my game plan and it ended up working out,” she said.

Mayne was happy to be the first girl to win the 18 and under category. “It means a lot also because I am the first Jamaica girl to win it, but I am happy with how my work has paid off,” she noted. She scored 74, 70 and 80 for 11 over par 224. Mayne tied with Emily Odwin of Barbados for first place. Eryn Blakely, who also represented Jamaica in the age group, placed seventh after scoring 251.

Azan, for her part, won the 15 and under category by one shot ahead of another Jamaican Mattea Issa, who led by two strokes at the beginning of the 18th hole. Issa lost the lead and the category after posting a three over par on the hole. She scored 231 on the back of 74, 79 and78, while Issa ended on 232 (76, 75 and 81).

Azan was unavailable for comment, but her compatriot Issa expressed disappointment at not doing better to press home her lead.

“It’s disappointing [as] leading up to the last hole, and then I wouldn’t say fumbling the bag, so it was a struggle on the last hole. I gave away the lead, I gave away the win, I gave it away so not a great feeling,” she lamented.

Alessandra Coe, who represented in the 13 and under category came eighth with a score of 308 overall. The category went to Ava Saavedra of Puerto Rico with a total score of 237.

On the boys’ side, Ryan Lue was the best-placed Jamaican on tour as he was fourth in the 15 and under category after carding 239 (83, 76, 80). Danny Lyne of the Cayman Island won the category on the back of 75, 75, 76 for a total score of 226.

Lue was joined in the group by Aaron Ghosh — 267 and Lek Drummond 275 for 12 and 14th place, respectively.

Rocco Lopez placed eighth in the 18 and under category. His scored 78 on each of the three days for a total of 234. Kelvin Hernandez of Puerto Rico took the category with scores of 73, 69 and 68 for a combined total of 210. His 68 was the best score of all the golfers in the championship.

Lopez said: “Unfortunately, I did not play my best but we had two people win their age groups so the team was really proud of them and I think as a team we had a really fun time and we are looking forward to next year.”

The youngest male team — the 13 and under category — was represented by Kemari Morris and Shasa Redlefsen who placed eighth and ninth, respectively, with scores of 269 and 272. Evan Pena of Puerto Rico won the group after posting 228 for the competition.

Puerto Rico won the team trophy, the Hank James Trophy with 168 points, ahead of runner-up the Dominican Republic on 119 points. Jamaica maintained its 2021 third-place finish with 117 points after being on joint second with the Dominican Republic at the end of day two.

Jamaica Coach Jason Lopez said: “We were very pleased with the girls’ performance. To have Samantha Azan win the Under-15 girls, Mattea Issa finishing second and Emily Mayne winning the Under-18 girls was inspirational for, hopefully, all the other young ladies out there who are contemplating what sport to play.”

Team Manager Alison Reid, who is also the convener for junior golf, was very proud of the team’s performance.

“I am actually very proud of our team. The course played hard and the children did very well. We were really close, we missed it by two.” She also said that there were some outstanding performances and the young players gave it their all,” she said.