Richards Jr wins Trials, Corriea back in national set up

For­mer na­tion­al ju­nior cham­pi­on Zi­co Cor­reia is back on the na­tion­al team fol­low­ing a de­ci­sion of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Golf As­so­ci­a­tion (TTGA) Board to rat­i­fy the ten play­ers (six men and four women) on Mon­day to rep­re­sent T&T at the up­com­ing Caribbean Am­a­teur Golf Cham­pi­onships in the Cay­man Is­lands from Au­gust 2-7 at the Ritz-Carl­ton Golf Club & North Sound Golf Club.

The rat­i­fi­ca­tion came af­ter four days of na­tion­al tri­als at three venues and the rec­om­men­da­tion of the play­ers by the Se­lec­tion Com­mit­tee un­der the chair­man­ship of Wayne Bap­tiste and com­pris­ing Chris Richards Sr, Chris McMil­lan, Lennox Wilkin­son and Kennedy Flem­ing.

Chris Richards Jr was the lone au­to­mat­ic se­lec­tion af­ter he topped the 12-play­er field with a score of 281 (72, 71, 70 and 68) dur­ing his four-day play.

The play­ers had to sub­mit the best scores for three days of play among oth­er cri­te­ria re­quire­ments.

Cor­riea’s scores for the first three days were 83, 74, and 75. He did not fin­ish play on the fourth day and was ranked sixth by the se­lec­tion com­mit­tee.

Mean­while, a dis­tant sec­ond to Richards Jr was Ethan Col­lier, who card­ed a fi­nal day score of even par 72 to add to his pre­vi­ous rounds of 75, 81 and 79 for a four-day tal­ly of 25 over 307, with Ay­den Ali (81, 80, 79 and 71) se­cur­ing the third spot with a score of 29 over 311, and vet­er­an Bap­tiste, the TTGA gen­er­al sec­re­tary and act­ing vice pres­i­dent, end­ing fourth with a fi­nal tal­ly of 34 over par 316 af­ter rounds of 82, 76, 78 and 80, with Jer­seem Boodram fifth with a to­tal of 319 (78, 78, 84, 79).

Among the women, Vic­to­ria Seenath was the win­ner with a four-day score of 36 over par 318 af­ter rounds of 79, 86, 77 and 76 with Elise La Bor­de a dis­tant sec­ond with 61 over par 342 (81, 86, 98, 78), and Hai­ley Layne, third with a score of 69 over par 351 af­ter rounds of 79, 96, 95 and 81, while Tori De Fre­itas-Bap­tiste end­ed fourth at 87 over par, 369 with rounds of 91, 97, 98 and 83.

Is­abel­la Ramdeen was the fifth-placed fin­ish­er among the women at 87 over par, 369, af­ter card­ing scores of 91, 97, 98 and 63.

The tri­als took place at Mil­len­ni­um Lakes in Trinci­ty and were fol­lowed up with two days of play at St An­drews Golf Course in Mo­ka, Mar­aval, and con­clud­ed with day four at the Ch­agu­ra­mas Golf Course.

FI­NAL MEN’S TEAM

1. Chris Richards Jr, (Win­ner)

2. Liam Bry­den

3. Ross Ramkissoon

4. Gabriel Vanonos­te

5. Ethan Col­lier

6. Zi­co Cor­reira.

FI­NAL WOMEN’S TEAM

1. Vic­to­ria Seenath (Win­ner)

2. Is­abelle Ramdeen

3. Elise Labor­de

4. Tori De­fre­itas Bap­tiste.