The R&A wants to help the St. Maarten Golf Association expand its junior golf program and build both the St. Maarten Open and Junior Open Tournaments.
“I’m here” said Mark Lawrie, director of the Latin American and Caribbean R&A.
The R&A is the St Andrews-based governing body of golf. It was formed in 2004 by The Royal and Ancient Golf Club which was founded in 1754 and was considered the de facto leader of the sport.
The R&A works with 156 national affiliated associations serving 30 million golfers in 143 countries and operates in three key areas:
Governance, Championshipsand Development.
The R&A administers the Rules of Golf, the Rules of Amateur Status and Equipment Standards throughout the world, apart from the US and Mexico which are in the United States Golf Association’s jurisdiction.
“One of the goals of the R&A is to expand the game,” said Lawrie. “St. Maarten is one of the few countries in the R&A from the Caribbean, and I dare say I am the first from the R&A to visit here.”
Lawrie was Executive Director of the Argentine Golf Association for more than a decade. In 2014 he was appointed as The R&A’s Director for Latin America and the Caribbean and has been able to provide a platform for the top amateur players to shine mostly in tournament play and offers a huge incentive for other young players to follow in their footsteps in the years to come.
Lawrie met with the president of the St. Maarten Golf Association, Keith Graham, as well as association member Marcus Groeneveld and Howard Hobgood the Mullet Bay Golf Course Pro.
The group met at the Mullet Bay course, where Graham started the meeting stating that the R&A had been supporting the local junior program
for years; however, the Association suffered badly with the passing of Hurricane Irma losing both equipment and members.
“The St. Maarten open is our biggest fund raiser of the year,” said Graham. “After the storm we could not run the tournament, so we lost a year of revenue.”
This year the Open returned. Sixty-five competed, down from previous years were more than 100 participated.
Hobgood reported the Junior program is up and running with 15 young golfers receiving free lessons 3times a week.
“Let me ask you a question,” said Lawrie, “If we got you more equipment could you expand the junior program from 15 to 30?”
Without hesitation at all Hobgood said yes.
Focus shifted to tournaments and the interaction of golfers from different islands. Lawrie admitted part of the reason for his trip was to
find out why St. Maarten is a member of the R&A, while many Caribbean Island are not.
Graham explained there was some interaction among the various golf associations. Each year except right after the storm St. Maarten sends
a team to compete in the Eastern Caribbean Golf Association Tournament.
The ECGA is comprised of golf associations from Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, Barbados, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Montserrat, St. Croix, St.
Kitts, St. Lucia, St. Maarten and St. Thomas.
Graham also explained St. Maarten has strong ties with both the Anguilla golf association, just a ferryboat ride away, and St. Martin Golf Association which also uses the Mullet Bay facilities.
Cost and transportation were cited as key concerns with the competition moving forward or expanding.
Lawrie said with surprise “I found out flying from one island to another is not easy.” He explained he was going to visit another island before returning home, but no direct flight was available, so he had to fly to Miami first.
The meeting continued with discussions on how the R&A could help St.
Maarten, how the R&A could expand into other islands and what would be the best way to gather all the golf leaders of the region to an annual meeting to discuss ways to improve and expandthe game.
The meeting ended with Lawrie asking the St. Maarten delegation to “Put on paper” new ways the R&A could help them and with a tour of the golf
course.
