By Carlena Knight
One of the country’s top golfers, Kimesha Anthony, has spoken out about the unfavorable conditions at the Cedar Valley Golf Course.
Anthony recently competed in the inaugural national championships which saw her take the female crown. Although Anthony commended the competitiveness of the event, the conditions at the course were put into question.
According to Anthony, around this time, due to the dry season the country faces, the course becomes quite dry and is not the best time to play, but she is of the opinion that with a few changes and additions, the course could even rival those across the region.
“We need an irrigation system to get water to help with the growing of the grass. We depend on the rain to get a green golf course and you know we only get rain the latter part of the year, so the beginning of the year its dry, real dry like chips. I think if we have the irrigation system, we will then have water to feed the golf course and help with the grass and once you have grass, we will have a luscious golf course. Cedar Valley has the best lay out in the Caribbean, so once we have that, we will have one of the best golf courses in the Caribbean,” Anthony suggested.
When asked about the proposed changes that some international tournaments are looking at, Anthony did not agree.
Some of the proposed changes include making the hole wider and shortening the length of golf tournaments to make the sport more attractive to younger audiences.
Anthony believes that the integrity of the sport would be lost if these changes are implemented.
“If you going to get a bigger hole, then anybody will be able to shoot lights out. Golf is a sport where the least score wins. If you going to get a bigger hole, then nobody is going to miss the hole. You have to make it in a way that it is more competitive. We can’t make it easy,” Anthony said.
Coach Marlon George, who was also the winner of the male’s category at the national event, echoed the same sentiments as Anthony.
“I agree with coach Kim; golf is not supposed to be easy. I think the game of golf is supposed to be a relaxing sport. It takes four hours to play a round of golf and it’s a round of golf you enjoy with your buddies and now you want to hurry people off of the golf course, to go do what? I really don’t agree with that,” George opined.