THE 34th St Andrews Golf Club Ladies Open will tee off on Saturday at the St Andrews Golf Course in Moka, Maraval. The tournament will be played over two days in three different flights intended to accommodate all levels of amateur golfers.

YeJi Lee is the defending champion and will face a quartet of improving junior golfers in Chloe Ajodha, Jada Charles, Elise La Borde and Emily Wyatt in the first flight. Lee recently won the Brechin Castle Open held in early January and will be tough to beat. On Thursday, a 36-hole stableford format competition will be held as a warm-up for all participants.

An addition this year is an 18-hole tournament which will be played on Saturday for beginners with high handicaps, that is, handicaps over 36, the previous end of the handicap range. The recent revision and update to the handicap system by the world governing bodies is aimed at encouraging new entrants to the game by standardising the system and extending the range of the handicaps from 36 to 54. The standardisation enables a player to play competitively against other golfers anywhere in the world, making it easier to carry a handicap index from one course to any other course. In 2022, a nine-hole event was played, but this year the beginners/high handicaps will play 18 holes. It is hoped that this 18-hole event will be a standard feature in future years to encourage beginners to test their game in a competitive atmosphere, improve their skills and hopefully graduate to the lower handicap flights.

The Moka course is beginning to firm up as the dry season begins to take hold. Weather conditions are expected to be ideal for golf, cool nights and sunny days, some wind and occasional rain; and the condition of the greens is therefore expected to be fairly firm and fast.

There will be entries from Suriname, Curacao and Barbados as well as returning residents home for Carnival, which adds to the camaraderie and friendships that are a hallmark of this event. First tee time on Saturday is at 8 am

This year the sponsors include the Monster brand of sports drinks and Cardea Benefits Ltd (a subsidiary of AIB Ltd), which administers health benefit plans in TT and other Caribbean countries.