Patrick Cover of the USA won the 55th Jamaica Open Golf Championship at the Tryall Golf Club in Sandy Bay, Hanover on Tuesday by four strokes ahead of compatriot Josh Anderson, with defending champion Michael Maguire (USA) placing third, just one stroke back.
This was Cover’s second win following his 2019 win at the same venue.
Cover, who topped the leader board on all three days with scores of eight under par 64, three under par 69 and two under 70 for an overall score of 13 under par 203, was only one of two golfers with under par scores every day.
He was very happy with the results. “It’s great. I love coming down to Jamaica, I love this golf course and I plan to come back for as long as I can. It’s a great tournament.”
Cover said it was challenging on the course as last year’s winner played well. “MJ (Michael Maguire) played extremely well, he made it really hard on me. I think he was eight under through 11 holes and I wasn’t playing as good as I was the last two days, but I was playing ok, but he erased that lead really quickly even through the first five holes that lead was almost already gone so it got more interesting. I am just glad I finished it out. (I) played pretty well coming in.”
Anderson’s scores were par 72, two under 70 and seven under par 65 (the best last day score) for nine under par 207. Maguire shot three under par 69, one under par 71 and four under par 68 for his overall total of eight under par 208.
“I played great today. Starting seven shots back, you never really expected, you wanna play to win but in the back of your mind you are thinking like maybe I’ll play for second, so kind of free me up a little bit starting out but once I turned at seven under I kind of knew I had a chance coming down the back nine. I played solid all day, kind of steady. It happens, I had fun out there. It was good to be in contention, so it was a good day.”
Wesley Brown was the best placed Jamaican pro in the field. He ended tied for 15th place with scores of 69, 77 and 73 for a combined score of three over par 219.
He was disappointed. “Hugely disappointed, knowing that I had it going, plus 13 on the back nine alone and that’s not good playing professional golf. I gave away a lot. Really proud I finished as low, but still need to stock against these guys.
“These are the guys I should be taking care of when they come here, I mean I have all the tools to do the job and yet still again I failed to do the job. It.’s a learning curve. I take it as a steppingstone for next year.”
On the amateur side Jamaica’s Justin Burrowes topped that category with scores of 76, 70 and 73 for a total of three over par 219. He was also the only golfer outside of the pros who shot an under par score. He ended the tournament with a birdie putt, “that was a really good put. That was all my caddy honestly. He just gave me a really good line and he has been giving me really good line all week and I just hit a really good put with really good speed, and it went in, so I give all the credits to my caddy for that one.
“Overall, I am pleased with my game. I feel like there is something to build on and it’s always an honour to win so happy about that too.”
Jamaica’s Zandre Roye and William Knibbs were second and third, respectively. They had scores of 222 (76, 74, 72) and 226 (78, 76, 72) respectively.
The top three players in the Senior Professionals were Dwayne Pearman – 220, David Morland – 226 and Danny King – 230.
The other section, the Senior Amateurs, the top two are Jamaicans, Owen Samuda – 237 (76, 84, 77), and Dr. Mark Newnham – 242 (80, 81, 81) while Robert Sterling of Canada was third – 253 (84, 85, 84).
Jodi Munn-Barrow, president of the Jamaica Golf Association, said: “It was a great week. Very exciting. “The golf was at the highest level we have seen for a while. MJ Maguire really tried, came down to very close, just the second to last hole so I am very happy with the event this year.”
According to Scott Summy of presenting sponsor Aqua Bay, “I think it’s been great. The crazy thing about golf is, it tests you physically, mentally and there’s all sorts of outside forces that also tests you and that could be the weather, the wind, the fast greens and so we got a little bit of all of it and I think that it was a great tournament and a true test of golf so I am very, very happy with it.”
