Jamaica’s two junior golfers, Mattea Issa and Ryan Lue passed the ‘acid test’ by making the cut in the R&A Junior Open that is being played in Scotland at the Monifieth Golf Links.
The cut line was set at the top 80 golfers in the field of 109 after the second round, which was completed on Tuesday.
Issa ended the second day on 16 over par 160 after posting eight over par 80 on days one and two, respectively. She was tied for 73rd on the first day, while on closing day two tied for 71st with two other golfers.
Lue had a very good first day, posting three over par 75 but followed up with a rough second day, scoring 15 over par 87 for an overall score of 18 over par 162. He was tied with another golfer in 75th place at the end of the two days. His first-day score saw him tied in the 40th position.
The last golfer to make the cut line was Can Marko Ozdemir of Turkey, with a combined score of 21 over par 165 for the two days.
The leader in the field was Connor Graham of the host country Scotland. He posted scores of three under par 69 and five under par 67 for the first and second day, respectively, for a combined score of eight-under-par 136.
The third and final round will be played on Wednesday to determine the overall placements in the competition.
A look at the leader board shows that most of the golfers posted higher scores on day two than on the first day.
According to Alison Reid, team manager of the 34th Caribbean Amateur Junior Golf Championship and convener for junior golf in Jamaica, who accompanied Issa and Lue: “The extremely heavy wind on the second day was a major contributing factor to the higher scores. The heavy wind made it hard to be accurate on the golf course from the tee-off point to putting on the green, resulting in many extra shots by several golfers.”
Jamaica’s Mattea Issa and Ryan Lue were invited along with junior golfers from 64 other countries in the under sixteen age group to compete in the tournament, which is held every two years.
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