The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

Minister of Education Glenys Hanna-Martin is thrilled that high school sports is back and one of those is the Bahamas Golf Federation’s second annual National High School Golf Championships.

Hanna-Martin was on hand to view the final segment of the preliminaries yesterday at the BGF’s Nine Hole Golf Club and Driving Range at the Baillou Hills Sporting Complex. The tournament will wrap up today when the top players in both the private and public schools will clash for the individual and team titles.

“This is a beautiful site because this tournament is tapping into the incredible talent that our young people have,” said Hanna- Martin, who was joined by Minister of State Zane Lightbourne as well as Mark Lawrie, who is representing the R&A.

“In many instances, it is redirecting our young people and putting them on a positive course. Programmes such as this are what is needed in this country because this is opening the door for the incredible wealth of talents that young Bahamian athletes have. So this is just beautiful.”

With so many social ills occuring in the country right now, Hanna- Martin said the tournament is a breath of fresh air, especially coming out of the strict restrictions that was placed on the country in the wake of COVID-19.

“It feels like we’re coming back alive again. A part of us was shut down and now as we open it up, the vitality and liveliness is being restored,” she noted. “These types of programmes are very important. So this is great. We just hope another variant doesn’t come our way. We’re not into that.”

Gina Gonzales-Rolle, the chairman of the BGF’s Junior Division, said they were very pleased with the turnout for the past four days and even though it has been very cool, the breeze was a bit of a challenge for them. “But we train our kids to become international ambassadors for us so they have to get used

to playing in all types of weather, so they have to get used to it because there will be days when they will have to play in bad weather,” she stated.

Despite the conditions yesterday, Oliver White of Windsor School at Albany managed to shoot the lowest score of the day with a 28 to lead the junior boys’ division, which competed from 125 yards on each hole. The senior players competed from an average of 150 yards on each hole.

Tournament director Georgette Rolle-Harris, a director in the BGF, said compared to the initial year, this second time around has seen a vast improvement from the players.

“Once we got past the first day, everything else went very smoothly,” Rolle-Harris said. “The calibre of play has improved and that was heartwarming to see the growth of the skill level of the players.

“In the first year, we saw a lot of maximum scores and the scoring marshalls had to be more proactive in pushing the group to keep up their play. This year was a total improvement. Everyone was just better.”

With a number of new students, who would have only been involved in the past for about two weeks, Rolle-Harris said there were a lot of impressive performances from them, which shows that the level of the instructors has also risen.

“I hope that we can keep all of these golfers playing the game of golf so that in a year’s time, we will be able to see a lot more scores in the 40s and 30s and even the high 20s,” she said.

“I’m really looking forward to the finals on Friday (today). Eva Horton had a clean sweep in the primary public schools division and in the private high schools division, Windsor Academy won three titles. So I think it will be a very good competition. The players are all looking forward to it as we see where the game of golf can go.”

• Here are the results from yesterday’s competition:

Junior Boys

Team - 1st Place –Windsor School at Albany 92 (+11); 2nd Place - Queen’s College 106 (+25); 3rd Place - Lyford Cay International School 129 (+48). Individual - 1st Place – Oliver White, Windsor School at Albany, 28 (+1); 2nd Place - Aidan Gorospe, Windsor School at Albany, 31 (+4); T3 - Camdyn Forbes, Windsor School at Albany, 33 (+6); T3 - Luke Grimes, Queen’s College, 33 (+6).

Junior Girls

Team - 1st Place – Windsor School at Albany, 135 (+54); 2nd Place – Queen’s College, 147(+66); 3rd Place – Lyford Cay International School, 173 (+92).

Individual - 1st Place – Lilly Bisterzo, Windsor School at Old Fort, 36 (+9); 2nd Place – Chemari Pratt, Queen’s College, 40 (+13); 3rd Place – Cianna Mcwilliam, Queen’s College, 47 (+20).

Senior Boys

Team - 1st Place –Windsor School at Albany 100 (+19); 2nd Place - Queen’s College 114 (+33); 3rd Place - Lyford Cay International School 117 (+36).

Individual - 1st Place – Alex Dupuch, Windsor School at Albany, 31 (+4); 2nd Place - Jaden Ward, Windsor School at Albany, 32 (+5); 3rd Place - Jackson Auld MacTaggart, Lyford Cay International School, 33 (+6).

Senior Girls

Team - Queen’s College - Individual - 1st Place – Tyesha Tynes, St. John’s College, 37, (+10); 2nd Place - Miljojka Gojkovic, Teleos Christian School, 42 (+15); 3rd Place – Mia Underwood, Queen’s College, 45 (+18).

Overall National School Golf Championships will be held today.

• Here are the team matchups:

Lower Primary Girls advancing to the Championships

Team 1 - Windsor School at Old Fort- Team Score of 150 - Zara Greaves, Taylor Davis, Esther Boesel, Adrielle Goncalves.

Team 2 - Eva Hilton Primary School - Team Score of 204 - Jamiah Miller, Diana Pierre, Kazmyn Rolle .

Team 3 - Home School - Team Score of 183 - Zion Poitier, Zeden Poitier, Zaire Poitier.

Individuals - Safari Hanna, The Meridian School - 47; Payton McKenzie, Xavier’s Lower Primary School - 53; Sarah Scheidecker, Nassau Christian Academy - 58; Regan Moxey, Summit Academy - 63; Lenita Vickerie, Gavin Tynes Primary - 64; Janae Phillips, Gavin Tynes Primary- 68.

Lower Pirmary Boys advancing to the Championships

Team 1 - Lyford Cay International School - Team Score of 124 - Luis Ortiz Von Bismarck; Aden Jones; Andre De La Torre; Philippe Ciampini.

Team 2 - Windsor School at Old Fort - Team Score of 130 - Maximilien Demole; Hawthorne Wood; Thomas West; Jack Fox; Adam Turnquest.

Team 3 - Eva Hilton Primary School - Team Score of 152 - Antonio Hernandez; Fritzner Sylvester; Zhvargo McKenzie.

Team 4 - Claridge Primary School - Samuel Joseph; Nazario Major; Javardo Ingraham

Individuals - Luca Greaves, Windsor School at Old Fort - 50; Olover Van Olsean, St. Andrews International School - 52; Stubbs, Sandilands Primary School - 52; Reef Harvey, Home School - 54.

Upper Primary Girls advancing to the Championships

Team 1 - Eva Hilton Primary School -

Team Score of 152 - Aiyanna Hernandez; Rihanna Hanna; Caitlin McWilliam; Janai Miller; Brenae Knowles.

Team 2 - Claridge Primary School - Team Score of 180 - Anissa Robinson; Samara Gustave.