The Guyana Open Golf tournament was officially launched yesterday at the Marriott Hotel in Kingston.
The tournament is set to tee off with a Champions’ Dinner on October 25 with action beginning early on the greens over the next two days.
This is, according to Lusignan Golf Club President, Aleem Hussain who predicted that the competition would be at its pinnacle.
Meanwhile, Acting Club Captain, Dr. Joaan Deo went so far as to describe the upcoming event as the “biggest golfing tournament in the history of the sport in Guyana.”
Deo suggested that this year’s event is set to exceed last year’s turnout of 93 participants with participation in excess of 100 expected thereby forcing the tee off time to be earlier.
The former Suriname Open female champion stated, “We had about 93 persons last year but what we are going for this year is about 100 so we could have accommodated more. A lot of our overseas players have indicated that they are going to come and participate and we have almost 50 percent of our overseas contingent already registered.”
Deo added, “We have players from Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, the United States of America, Canada, French Guiana and Barbados and we are very excited to have them so what we are going to do in order to facilitate them is just tee off a bit early to push in the amount of players.”
The Acting Club Captain also predicted “two good full days of golf,” and noted that there should be a strong showing by the locals due to the extensive amount of tournaments played this year.
Public Relations Officer of the Club, Guy Griffith, said that the club has featured a tournament almost every weekend and while being closed for three months at a time per year, this year has seen the club closed for just one week with flooding being almost non-existent.
Nine-time defending champion Avinash Persaud supported Griffith’s position as he deemed the ground to be in superb form to which will aid him in his title defence.
“Lusignan [Golf Course] is in the best shape for the longest while and the championship would be no different because definitely I will be the champion again, I know it will be a tougher tournament with the overseas players coming in but I am well prepared for it and 100 percent confident I will win it,” Persaud stated.
Hussain added that there will be strong competition for Persaud who is on a quest to become the undisputed champion in the Caribbean but also issued a warning to him.
In addition, Marriott Hotel’s Director of Sales, Sandra Bernal wished the golfers well, stating, “We are very excited to have this partnership with Lusignan Golf Club and we want to thank Aleem Hussain and his team, Marriott has supported Golf around the world and Guyana is no different, first Marriott Golf tournament is set for November 3 in order to thank their customers for their loyalty.”
According to Hussain, over 30 companies have come on board to be part of the competition including Copa Airlines, Marriott, Ganesh Spare Parts and more.
