Cayman’s Holly McLean crowned regional golf champ

Following three days of competition at the 35th Annual Caribbean Amateur Junior Golf Championships, Cayman’s Holly McLean was crowned champion of the women’s 18-and-under division on 7 July.

Shooting two-under-par on the final day at the North Sound Golf Club, McLean, 18, pulled clear of the field to improve on her third-place finish at last year’s championship in Puerto Rico.

Across the three, once-daily rounds from 5-7 July, McLean was the only woman (and one of only two players) from the eight countries in attendance at these championships to dip under the overall par of 213, coming in at one shot below.

“It’s my last year so there was a lot of expectation to go out and win, and I’m happy that I got it done,” said McLean, who will age out of this junior level competition next year.

“It was nice with everyone coming out to support,” she continued. “The atmosphere was amazing.”

McLean is set to represent the Cayman Islands later this month at the senior level Caribbean Amateur Golf Championships, scheduled for 24-29 July in Trinidad and Tobago, before continuing her golf career at the University of Oklahoma.

Also returning to the podium from last year’s competition was Cayman’s Danny Lyne, who shot 222 (nine over par) across the three rounds to grab second place in the men’s U15 division.

Josh Richardson (sixth), Sam McLean (eighth) and Luke Dodson (ninth) joined Lyne in the men’s 15-and-under category’s top 10, while Lauren Needham shot 240 overall to finish fifth in the women’s 18-and-under division.

Cayman finished fourth in the overall team standings behind champions Puerto Rico, second-place Dominican Republic and third-place Jamaica.

Team coaches Tim Dwyer and Justin Hastings said that it was encouraging to see a record-high 18 golfers representing the Cayman Islands at these championships, with Dwyer attributing the size of the team to several factors – including the recent international successes of Caymanian golfers like Hastings and Aaron Jarvis.

“Golf is booming on island,” Dwyer said, pointing to a “big group effort” to grow the sport by local pros, players and the Cayman Islands Golf Association.

“But it’s really led by players like Aaron Jarvis and Justin Hastings, seeing them go play very well abroad. It’s definitely making it a cool sport.”