The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

ZANE Lightbourne, Minister of State for Education, was impressed with what he saw at the Bahamas Golf Federation’s Junior Division 2023 National Schools Golf Championships at the BFG’s Driving Range at the Baillou Hills Sporting Complex.

Lightbourne was on hand yesterday where he not only interacted with some of the private primary school boys and girls competitors, but he also presented awards to the boys’ top qualifying individual players and teams.

While the junior and senior high school teams wrapped up competition on Monday, the private primary schools staged their qualifying rounds to see who will advance to Thursday’s finals where they will square off against the top public primary schools teams, whose qualifying rounds will take place today.

“I think it’s a nice foundational programme for our youth. It’s a sport that we all love to see because of players like Tiger Woods and some of the top female players who participate internationally,” Lightbourne said.

“Now that we have it in our school system, we get to introduce some more players to a sport they may not have taken up on their own.”

Lightbourne commended the BGF, the Junior Division and Fourteen Clubs Golf Academy for collaborating in their efforts to produce the national championships where the public and primary schools get the opportunity to compete against each other.

During his time at the driving range, Lightbourne interacted with some of the players before he presented medals to the top primary individual boys and teams, who qualified to compete in Thursday’s final.

Lightbourne also got a golfing lesson in that he was told that a golf club is not called a golf stick. He was also offered an opportunity by one of the female players to provide him with some golfing lessons, which he gladly accepted.

William West, hoping to follow in the footsteps of his Windsor Academy junior and senior boys’ division champions, said he did very well to lead the upper boys division.

“I putted very well,” he said. “There were some things I felt I could have done better, but I’m really proud of my performance today.”

The 11-year-old sixth grader, however, is not certain if he will be able to contend for the title on Thursday as he would like to go on a field trip to Blue Lagoon with his fellow students from Windsor Academy as they celebrate their transition into the junior high school.

He said he will definitely be back next year to get another shot at winning the title, albeit in the junior division.

Gina Rolle-Gonzalez, the BGF’s Junior Division director, said they are very pleased with the way things are going.

“The scores that are coming in have been really good, so it seems like all of the kids are enjoying themselves as they fight for first, second and third places,” she stated.

“The private primary schools have gone out and tomorrow (today), we will have the public primary schools, so Thursday will be an interesting day to see who gets to carry home the trophies and medals.”

Fourteen Clubs Golf Academy director Georgette Rolle-Harris said the tournament had gotten off to a great start with some great weather and no injuries.

“That is what we look forward to mostly,” she said. “The competition is stiff with some of our champions coming back and still competing at a very high level. There are some players who are also out to make sure that they do better than they did last year.

“I think this championship has pulled in a lot of our full-time junior golfers and are getting them excited about playing golf more. They are also excited about representing their schools, so it’s not just an individual sport, but a team one. This makes it more hyped for them to play, especially those playing for the first time.”

Ahmal Henfield, one of the lead coaches for mini golf in the BGF, said he was delighted to go into some of the public primary schools to give them some instructions on the game.

“The process was to introduce them to the sport and get them used to playing with the equipment and to give them a basic understanding of how they are to conduct themselves on the golf course,” said Henfield, who attended a number of schools, including Eva Hilton, Sadie Curtis, Garvin Tynes, EP Roberts, AF Adderley and HO Nash.

While he conducted the introductory programme at the schools, Henfield said a lot of the schools were invited to the Driving Range in the afternoon where the students got the opportunity to put into practice some of the theory that they were taught.

Henfield said he’s looking forward to seeing some of the students he taught come out and display their skills for their respective schools as the public primary schools tee off in the tournament in their bid to qualify for Thursday’s finals.

“We didn’t just want to target the kids from the schools who participated last year, the goal was to get more students involved and I think we have an average of about 20 from each school who had expressed an interest in learning the game. “The end result was to select those whom we felt had the talent to play the game and to work with them within their school system.”

Today’s results

Lower Primary Boys Teams

1st Place - Lyford Cay - Team

Score of 153

Aden Jones

Diego Gago

Alexander Murray

2nd Place - Windsor School at

Old Fort- Team Score of 163

Jack Fox

Luca Greaves

Adam Turnquest

Top 10 Individuals

1st Place - Aden Jones, Lyford Cay International School - 49

2nd Place - Connor Stevenson, St.Andrews - 50

2nd Place - Reef Harvey, Homeschooling - 50

4th Place - Luca Greaves, Windsor School at Old Fort - 51

4th Place - Jack Fox, Windsor School at Old Fort - 51

6th Place - Diego Gago, Lyford Cay International School - 52

6th Place - Alexander Murray, Lyford Cay International School - 52

8th Place - Thyler Rolle, Nassau Christian Academy - 55

9th Place - Cameo Smith, Queen’s College - 58

10th Place - Adam Turnquest - 61

Lower Primary Girls

1st Place - Poitier Golf

Homeschool - Team Score of 147

Zion Poitier

Zeden Poitier

Zaire Poitier

Top Individuals

1st Place - Sarah Scheidecker, Nassau Christian Academy - 44

2nd Place - Zion Poitier, Poitier Golf Homeschool - 47

3rd Place - Zaire Pitier, Poitier Golf Homeschool - 47

4th Place - Skyrah Chambers, Homeschooling - 51

5th Place - Zeden Poitier, Poitier Golf Homeschool - 53

6th Place - Safari Hanna, The Meridian School - 58

7th Place - Lauryn Turnquest, Windsor at Old Fort - 69

Upper Primary Boys

1st Place - Windsor School at

Old Fort - Team Score of 107

William West

Leonardo Bisterzo

Hugo Johnston

Hawthorne Wood

Thomas Fox

2nd Place - St. Andrews

International School-

Team Score of 117

William Mahelis

Mirko Gervasini

Caleb Davis

3rd Place - Kings College -

Team Score of 122

Maximilien Demole

Luis Ortiz von Bismark

Francisco Ortiz von Bismark Jr,

4th Place - Lyford Cay

Int. School - Team Score of 124

Sebastian Halewyck

Philippe Ciampini

Juan Pedro Vianna

5th Place - Queen’s College -

Team Score of 164

Hiram Tinubu

Lathan Bowleg

Bayne Bostwick

Taye Charlton

Amir Hamilton

6th Place - Kingsway Academy -

Team Score of 183

Amari Jones

Dereck Rolle

Joshua Louis

Ethan Miller

Liam Gray

Top Individuals

Upper Primary Boys

1st Place - William West, Windsor School at Old Fort - 31

2nd Place - William Mahelis, St. Andrews International School - 34

3rd Place - Sebastian Halewyck, Lyford Cay International School - 36

3rd Place - Leonardo Bisterzo, Windsor School at Old Fort - 36

5th Place - Maximilien Demole, King’s College School, The Bahamas 38

6th Place - Luis Ortiz von Bismark, King’s College School, The Bahamas - 39

7th Place - Hugo Johnston, Windsor School at Old Fort - 40

8th Place - Mirko Gervasini, St. Andrews - 41

9th Place - Briland Cunningham, Homeschooling - 42

9th Place - Caleb Davis, St. Andrews -42

Upper Primary Girls

1st Place - Windsor School at

Old Fort Bay - Team Score of 148

Zara Greaves

McKayla Grace Wood

Amelia Inguaggiato

Alexandra Lefeber

Taylor Davis

2nd Place - Queen’s College - Team Score of 183

Tatyana Clarke

Isobel Grimes

Haylee Rolle

Kaleah Brown

Individual Scores

1st Place - Kayleigh Rolle, The Meridian School - 37

2nd Place - Zara Greaves, Windsor School at Old Fort - 38

3rd Place - Tracy Johnson, Kingsway Academy - 50

4th Place - Londyn Strachan, Genesis Academy - 51

4th Place - Alyssa Richards - St.Thomas Moore - 51

4th Place - McKayla Grace Wood, Windsor School at Old Fort - 51

7th Place - Tatyana Clarke, Queen’s College - 53

8th Place - Amelia Inguaggiato, Windsor School at Old Fort - 59

9th Place - Isobel Grimes, Queen’s College - 63

10th Place - Alexandra Lefeber, Windsor School at Old Fort - 65