The 57th staging of the Jamaica Open Golf Championship was launched last Thursday with prize monies likely to reach $17.3m (US$110,000) revealed chairman of the organising committee Peter Chin.

“The prize money this year if we have a full field is US$110,000. We are expecting a very successful event. Based on the entries so far, we have surpassed last year’s numbers,” Chin pointed out.

The launch was at the Constant Spring Golf Club in Kingston but the championship will be held at the picturesque Tryall Golf Club in Hanover for the fifth consecutive year from November 10 to 12.

Defending champion, American Andrew Arft is among the early 60 players confirmed from the United States of America (USA), Canada, Trinidad and Tobago, Bermuda and host country Jamaica.

“The difficulty we had with this tournament in terms of entries was from the pandemic, the numbers have been rising but have not gotten back to the level that they were,” Chin noted.

“We are hopeful every year to increase the prize money because that is what attracts the top professional golfers,” he added.

The playing format will be stroke play, 18 holes each day for a total of 54 holes.

The Pro-Am tournament is scheduled for Saturday the 9th, with an 8:30 am shotgun start. It will feature the majority of the pros and the amateurs playing in teams, to share skills, generate camaraderie and introduce the course to the overseas-based golfers.

Meanwhile, this year’s honouree will be Jamaican Johnny Bloomfield, who won the tournament for three consecutive years. Jamaica Golf Association (JGA) president Jodi Munn-Barrow, expounded on the choice of Bloomfield as honouree.

“Johnny is the only one to win three consecutive Jamaica Opens on two different golf courses. He won his first one at Caymanas (2006) and then the last two (2008 and 2009) at Half Moon Golf Course,” she explained. “So that itself is a feat. Seymour Rose is another three-time winner but not consecutively so we thought it was just right to award him as the honouree this year for that feat.”

Two of the sponsors—Dr Carey Wallace executive director of the Tourism Enhancement Fund and Sports Development Foundation’s general manager Alan Beckford—were at the launch and they endorsed the event.

“Golf tourism is of course an important diamond amongst diamonds that we have here in Jamaica.  We believe that it is necessary for us to support the outstanding associations—stakeholders that are putting it together for them to have the resources to take it to higher levels,” said Wallace.

Beckford said: “The Sports Development Foundation has historically supported the sport of golf and it goes more than just supporting the golf federation. We also have had a summer camp that we have supported in collaboration with Insports and we have had this camp for a number of years where we have students from the community around Caymanas Golf Course coming out to participate in the camp.

“We have sponsored a pro-am tournament a couple of years as well too so we see golf to be a very important sport among the sports in Jamaica. We think it’s an excellent sport and we wish them the best with this tournament.”

Aqua Bay Resort returns as the presenting sponsor for the fifth consecutive year. The major sponsors include the TEF, Tryall, JTB, Jamaica Tours, Grand Palladium, SDF and Vybwear while the product sponsors are Wata, Juici Patties, Café Blue, Honey Bun and Rainforest.