Paul Leyow was the happiest man on Sunday after his dramatic win of the AMG Buccaneer Memorial Golf Tournament at Caymanas Golf Club in St. Catherine on Sunday (November 23).

The tournament, which was the first golf event since the passing of Hurricane Melissa, netted J$1.5 million for two charities, namely the Laws Street Trade Training Centre in downtown Kingston and the Jamaica Golf Association’s Caddy Relief Fund to support caddies in the western end of the island who have been negatively affected by the powerful cyclone

Leyow scored four over par 76 to lead the Men & Men Senior 0-6 category at the end of the first round, but gave up the lead to the former West Indies Cricket board president Dave Cameron during round two to lead by two shots at the start of the 18th hole. His final shot of the tournament was a well-needed birdie for a six-over-par 78 and a total score of 10-over-par 154.

Leyow and the other members of his group were genuinely surprised by the birdie which he shot from the bunker on the edge of the 18th hole. The birdie also ended Cameron’s chance of winning his first golf tournament, which he eventually lost by one shot after scoring 11-over-par 155. Ryan Lue was third on 157.

“It turned out to be a thrilling end on the 18th green. So Dave was leading me by two shots, and he teed off. He didn’t have a very good tee shot. He got himself in some trouble, and then it ended up on the green, where he was on the green for three, and I was in the bunker for two. So I knew that if I could possibly get a good shot on the green and make par, and he would maybe double bogey, we would go to a playoff, but I was more than happy to realise that Dave was a little bit nervous with his putting. Left his putt really short, the first putt, and I just happened to sink the birdie, made three, and he double bogeyed, and I nipped him by one. That was pretty thrilling in the end, yeah,” said Leyow.

“I’ll be honest, I wasn’t able to prepare for this as I’d like. All that’s been happening, I was doing some travelling, so I wasn’t able to be on the course as much as I wanted to, but happily surprised that my game showed up over the weekend, and I was able to put in a good score on the first day yesterday. Pretty much backed it up today with some help from my opponents, Dave and Tommy; they didn’t play as great as I know they can. I nipped them in the end and was the winner,” said a very happy Paul Leyow.

Quintin Hugh Sam 177 topped the Men & Men Senior 7-12 category while Oliver McIntosh and Damion Andreson both scored 184 to tie for second place.

The Men Super Senior 0-12 went to Philip Prendergast 158, followed by Mike Gliechman 161 and Richard Sincair 171.

Tony Gooden 166 bagged the Masters trophy.

The junior category, Jacob Schnoor 193 won the Boys 14-15 category while Alessandra Coe 181 won the corresponding Girls 14-15 category.

The other winners were determined based on the stableford scoring system which is points based, with the winner getting the most points. Andrew Spencer 49 won the Men & Men Senior 13-24 category. Irma Steyn 34 points topped the Ladies category while Dr. Guyan Arscott 31 copped the Masters category. Jordan Demetrius 31 points took the Boys 15 and Under category.

Peter Chin, the outgoing captain of the Buccaneer Golf Club, said that they had to host the tournament for several reasons.

“Well, we had over the two days, over 70 players, normally we have close to a hundred. We knew that it would be a challenge to have our fellow competitors from Montego Bay and Ocho Rios, who would normally support the event, but we decided that we have to get back to normality, and we can’t just do nothing, so we decided we had to go ahead with the tournamen,t and not only that, the tournament is a fundraiser. We have sponsors, and we have other people who contribute to the event and we are extremely happy to say that we will be able to give a million dollars to the Laws Street Trade Training Center and we’re going to give five hundred thousand dollars to the Caddy Relief Fund. So most of that for the Caddy Relief Fund is for the caddies who are in the western part of the island, Tryall, Half Moon, Cinnamon Hill, and White Witch, who suffered extensive damage from the hurricane. So this is our small way of saying to them, ‘fight on’.” 

The event was sponsored by AMG Packaging with Scientific & Medical Supplies as an associate sponsor

The golf tournament is in its 30th year and is held annually in memory of seven of Jamaica’s outstanding past national representatives, namely Milton ‘Buddy’ Josephs, Izette Rhone, Lenan ‘Lennie’ Chin, John Fulford, Al Chong, Claude Stewart, and Mark Chin, former captain of the Buccaneers Golf Club.