Cayman Islands golf had a recent boost through the presence of star power. Among the local fraternity happy with that fact is Samantha and Johnny Widmer.
The siblings praised Marcello Santi’s second annual Friends Pro-Am tournament in Grand Cayman as a success. In particular the Widmers liked the junior clinic, which featured instructor Sean Hogan of the David Leadbetter Golf Academy at North Sound Golf Club.
“I think the junior golf clinic was great for the kids,” Johnny said. “We need more of that type of thing here in Cayman. It will only help kids through their development.”
“As Sean Hogan said, the key element to many of the professional events on tour is spending time with a junior golf programme,” Samantha said. “Being a person that has grown up through junior golf programmes, I really see the importance of encouraging our youth and developing golf in kids from a young age. I am glad to see that Marcello is engaging both professional players and youngsters so that all ages can benefit from this great event.”
Hogan, 31, would teach dozens of youngster aged 8-14. He worked on the basics such as putting and driving with the help of North Sound resident professionals Jason Deerwester and Robert Chilman.
The clinic was one of several activities tied to the tournament, which was dubbed this year as the Audemars Piguet Invitational. There was a celebrity football match at Camana Bay with Italian greats Gianfranco Zola, Daniele Massaro and Pierluigi Casiraghi. The Italians were also featured at a youth football camp with Academy Sports Club at Outpost Field in George Town.
Some 12 pros came down for the event, which took place at the Blue Tip golf course at the Ritz-Carlton, Grand Cayman. Among them were Peter Hanson (who won the competition), Kendall Ann Wright, Brian Davis, Thomas Levet, Richard Johnson, Alex Noren, Paige Mackenzie, Greg Owen and Cassandra Marie Blaney. All have starred on the European Tour and Professional Golfers’ Association Tour.
Zola and the other footballers also took part with their countryman Santi, who has Caymanian status, looking on as tournament organizer (he played last year and finished fourth).
Johnny leaves Cayman this weekend after a three-week sojourn and will return to school at the University of Colorado. He states the talent on display at Blue Tip was excellent.
“I think it was great for Cayman and was an amazing opportunity for people to witness amazing talent.”
An interesting quirk for the competition was that all of the visiting pros were matched up with roughly 33 local amateurs. Most were businessmen such as Raul Nicholson-Coe but a few, like Emily Ribbins, are aspiring Caymanian golfers. Samantha states the push to include resident players is what made the event good.
“It was a great event for a few reasons: it brought amazing talent to the island, encouraged the growth of golf in the Cayman Islands, promoted golf for the younger Caymanian generation and allowed me the opportunity to meet some of my golf idols.”
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