Bahamas Hosts Seven Caribbean Countries for Golf Championships

The Bahamas is hosting golfers from seven Caribbean countries this week as they compete for glory in the 60th Annual Caribbean Amateur Golf Championships.

Amateur golfers from Jamaica, Barbados, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Trinidad and Tobago, Puerto Rico, the Cayman Islands, the Dominican Republic and The Bahamas will compete at the One and Only Ocean Club Golf Course in the Hoerman Cup and the George Teale Memorial Trophy.

“On behalf of the government and people of The Bahamas, and particularly the Ministry of Tourism, I would like to welcome all of you who have traveled to our country to take part in 60th Caribbean Amateur Golf Championship,” Director General in the Ministry of Tourism Joy Jibrilu said during the official opening of the tournament on Monday. 

“By any measure 60 years is a long time, but we in The Bahamas are especially proud to host this landmark edition of this prestigious regional championship at the Ocean Club Golf course on Paradise Island.

“Today, golf is a vibrant sport in the Caribbean region, and so on the occasion of the 60th Caribbean Amateur Golf Championship, I would like to congratulate the Caribbean Golf Association for its consistently high standard of sportsmanship it has maintained in amateur golf throughout the years.”

Jibrilu also encouraged the golfers to venture beyond Paradise Island and experience everything New Providence has to offer.

“You are on a mission to win,” she said.

“I would be truly remiss if I did not take time to invite all of you to take time out of the competition to explore our destination.”

In his message to the athletes, Tourism Minister Obie Wilchcombe said, “By virtue of skill and perseverance, competing athletes have earned the privilege of taking part in this regional tournament.

“This week, you will play your best game yet, and winners will emerge.”

Bahamian golfers, the late Frederick Higgs, Ambrose Gouthro and Peter Hall were also inducted into the Caribbean Golf Association Hall of Fame during the event.

Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture Dr. Danny Johnson said Higgs was instrumental in junior golf in The Bahamas.

“The man responsible for the national junior golf program that exists in the Bahamas today is the late great Fred Higgs,” Johnson said.

“Fred Higgs was the one who got our junior program going in the 1970s.

“He was so instrumental in that. We then had lions and lionesses. It is an equal opportunity sport.

“We had lions who I think won two championships and lioness won two championships, but he had brought them up.

“The only other golfers in our cabinet, [Minister of Labour] Shane Gibson, also came up under the leadership Fred Higgs, so we are very happy and honored that we would take under consideration putting him in the Hall of Fame, here in The Bahamas, in his home.”

The tournament officially started on Tuesday and will end on Friday.