The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

A FIFTH overall finish for Team Bahamas was highlighted by an historic performance from the senior members of the team which ended a drought that lasted more than two decades.

Vernon Wells and Bobby Rose withstood a late charge from Team Jamaica on the final day of competition to finish in a tie for the Higgs and Higgs Trophy at the 58th Caribbean Amateur Golf Championships.

The Half Moon Golf Resort and Spa and the Cinnamon Hill Golf Club in Montego Bay, Jamaica, were the scenes of history for the Bahamian team as they captured the division title for the first time since 1990. It was just the second Higgs and Higgs Cup won by the Bahamas since the division was initiated in 1990 in Jamaica.

Wells and Rose shot +1 in round four with a 73 to finish at -4 under par for the tournament with 284 strokes. They opened with a -2 under par (70), a second round -3 under par (69) and third round even 72.

The Jamaican team of Peter Chin and Easton Williams shot a blistering 67 on the final day to go -5 under par. Both teams finished at -4 under par and 284 strokes.

In 2014, Wells paired with Oswald Moore and finished fourth overall with a final score of 290, +2.

The Bahamas dropped one spot from 2014 and played their way to a sixth place finish in the race for the Arthur Ziadie Trophy. The Bahamas finished with a total of 104 points.

Trinidad and Tobago were crowned champions with 134 points, followed by Jamaica with 132 points, Puerto Rico was third with 117, The Dominican Republic was fourth with 113 points and the US Virgin Islands rounded out the top five with 110 points.

The last time the Bahamas won the title was in 2000 in Barbados.

The CAGC is an annual championship contested by the nine members — Barbados, the Bahamas, Cayman Islands, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos and the US Virgin Islands.

In the Seniors division, competing for the Francis and Steele Perkins Cup, the team of George Swann and Horace Miller finished tied for sixth, nine strokes behind the winners Carlos Baynes and Richard Camacho of Trinidad and Tobago. .

Swann and Miller finished at 292, +4 after rounds of 74 (+2), 74 (+2), 71 (-1) and 73 (+1).

The Francis & Steele-Perkins Cup was last won by the Bahamas in 1999 in the Turks and Caicos Islands,

In the Hoerman Cup for regular players, the Bahamas’ team of Benjamin Davis Jr, Devaughn Robinson, Asif Robinson, Elijah Delancy and Nolan Johnson finished seventh of the eight groups at +123 over.

Devaughn Robinson, a five-time former member of Team Bahamas’ CAJGC and CAGC national teams, was the top player of the team and finished fourth in the field at +11 over (299). His best round of -2 under 70 in round three was followed by his worst round, +9 over 81. Davis finished at No.12 overall after shooting 308, +20

The BGF’s 2014 national amateur champion and a repeated member of Team Bahamas for both the CAGC and CAJGC national teams had a top round of 75, shot on day two.

Delancy, in his debut with the CAGC team after moving up from the junior ranks, finished at No.33 +27 over (333).

Asif Robinson finished at No.34 and shot +47 over (335).

In his second appearance at the CAGC, his top outing was a second round 82.

Johnson, also in his CAGC debut, finished tied at No.37 with a score of +66 over (354).

Johnthan Newhan of Jamaica led individually at +2 and the Dominican Republic won the division at +58 over.

The Bahamas has not won the Hoerman Cup since 1980 in Barbados.

In the Mid-Amateur men, John and Peter McIntosh finished sixth as they shot a total of 297, +5. Their best performance was an opening round 70, -2 under par.

Juan Campusano and Bienvenido Guerrero of the Dominican Republic took the Ramon Baez trophy with a 277, -3.

The Bahamas has never won the Ramon Baez Cup.

In the Ladies’ division, the team of Taneka Sandiford, Brianne Robinson and Inecia Rolle finished ranked No.6 with a score of +91. The USVI took the George Teale trophy at +39.

Rolle was the top finisher for Team Bahamas ranked No.14 at +48 (336). Rolle, the winner of the BGF’s 2015 President’s Cup, shot identical rounds of 83 to open play.

Sandiford finished 17th at+53 (341). A repeat member of the George Teale Cup and a former contender for the 2015 Bahamas’ representative spot in the 2015 PureSilk Bahamas LPGA Classic, her best round was opening with an 80.

Robinson, the winner of the BGF Ladies’ 2014 national amateur champion President’s Cup competition and a former member of the 2014 George Teale Cup, is tied for No.18 with a total score +64 (352). The Bahamas held the George Teale Cup back-to-back in 2003 and 2004.