The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

IT wasn’t the start that Devaughn Robinson expected as he made his third appearance in the Latin America Amateur Championship.

Robinson and Steven Kemp, making his debut, are representing the Bahamas at the four-day tournament at the Club de Golf de Panama in Panama City.

After the first round of competition yesterday, Robinson is sitting in an 11-way tie for 48 with a +4 for 74, while Kemp is tied with others for 91st place with a +8 for 78.

Julian Périco from Peru leads the field with -6 for 64 and Alejandro Villavicencio from Guatemala follows by one stroke.  Three others trail Villavicencio by one stroke.

Robinson and Kemp, selected by the Bahamas Golf Federation - one of the 29 IOC-recognised countries and territories from this region that are current members of the International Golf Federation - were invited to participate. 

The two 28-year-old players automatically received the Bahamas’ two positions, which were filled based on their best-ranked players from the World Amateur Golf Ranking as of October 5, 2016.

For Robinson, the first round wasn’t what he expected.

“I didn’t put myself out of the tournament, so I feel good about the next three rounds,” Robinson told The Tribune. “I got off to a really good start and I kind of fell asleep in the middle of the round when I got a bit careless.

“But it’s a mistake that won’t happy again.”

His misfortunes came on holes 8, 9 and 12 when he lapsed on a couple putts and he made a mental error hitting the ball out of bounds on the 12th. With the competition extremely tough, Robinson said he can’t afford to make those kinds of mistakes again.

“We’re plying against the best amateurs in the region,” he said. “These are guys who can go and compete against almost anybody anywhere so the competition here is really stiff.”

Robinson, however, is hoping that he can surpass his tied 19th spot last year after he finished 32nd the previous year.

In his first appearance in the tournament, Kemp said he too didn’t perform as well as he expected.

“My first round was tricky,” he told The Tribune. “I missed a lot of fairways and when you do that on this course it makes pars very difficult.”

As far as the competition is concerned, Kemp said it’s tough.

“The field is filled with top amateurs in the world so it is great to be competing against them,” he said. “The event itself is run like a major PGA Tour event. It’s so well organised and there is so much to strive towards with the winner getting an invitation to the Masters at Augusta Nationals.”

With the experience of the first day of competition behind him, Kemp said he plans to be more conservative off the tee when he gets back on the course today. “That would allow me to be more aggressive with my approach shots into the greens,” he projected.

“Instead of playing defensive golf all day, I would like to go on the offensive.”

The tournament is set to conclude on Sunday.