Jamaica’s Zandre Roye and Oshae Haye were challenged by cold temperatures during the first round of the 11th Latin America Amateur Golf Championship (LAAC) at the Lima Golf Club in Peru. The tournament got under way on Thursday at the Lima Golf Club.
Both golfers spent their first round battling cold conditions on the narrow par 70 golf course which they were competing on for the first time. Roye started with a bogey but corrected that immediately with a birdie on the following hole. The rest of his scorecard showed seven bogeys and a double bogey for a nine over par 79 to close the round in 80th place tied along with seven other golfers.
Roye indicated that it was a rough start and set his sights on a better second round and the opportunity to improve on his score and possibly make the cut and continue in the championship.
“Today was kinda rough. Got off to a not so great start, didn’t hit the ball pretty well, didn’t hit the ball good today. Managed to make a few pars coming in, to salvage whatever the round was. Learned a lot. Little bit further back than I wanted to be but go out again tomorrow, reset, and got it. Tomorrow is a new day. Golf course condition is scoreable. Just gotta hit their ball in the right places and take advantage of the holes when they come.”
Haye had a good start with a par five on hole number one. His troubles began with a double bogey on hole number two then a short recovery with par scores on holes number four and five. The balance of his scorecard showed five bogeys and three double bogeys but he ended the back nine with four par holes between the 15th and 18th holes. Haye closed his first round on 13 over par 83 in the 101st place along with three others.
Andy Schonbaum of Argentina and Andrés Martínez Benedetti of Venezuela were tied for first place at the top of the leaderboard after posting similar scores of four under par 66 for the first round.
There are 28 countries and more than 100 golfers in the championship this year.
The champion will receive a coveted invitation to compete in the Masters Tournament and exemptions into The Open and the US Open.
