By Kern De Freitas  From Trinidad Express

There is a lot of confidence surrounding the Trinidad and Tobago junior golf team, who are gearing up for the Caribbean Amateur Junior Golf Championships (CAJGC), next month in the Cayman Islands.

The tournament will run from July 1-6 at North South Golf Club, where a very experienced junior team have high hopes of securing an overall victory.

Those hopes rest on the shoulders of 16-17 age-group players, Matthew Marquez and Christina Ferreira, both of whom are playing their last year in the junior ranks. Wan Joo Lee, last year’s boys’ 14-15 winner, will campaign in the boys’ 16-17 category, and Ysabelle Lawrence has a second shy at the girls’ 14-15 title.

Many of the other golfers also have previous CAJGC experience—including Serena MacKenzie, who will have a third year in the girls’ 11-13 competition–while Wan Joo, Marquez, Dinesh Jackree, Kumar and Liam Bryden are all in contention for T&T senior team selection, and will play in the upcoming senior trials.

The T&T junior team will be coached once again by Chris Richards.

T&T Golf Association technical director Chris Harries is very hopeful that his team can do better than last year’s second place.

“This is a very talented team and we’re very fortunate we have some defending champions from last year playing this year.”

The team will have the services of Sport Company of T&T (SPORTT) psychologist Nadine Sammy, who has been helping the youngsters work on the mental aspects of their game.

“This year we have realised that in the past we have had one or two players who haven’t quite been able to cope mentally,” Harries told the Express. “With this extra help from Nadine we figured we can go a long way in this division. I don’t see any reason we can’t cope with the competition.”

The T&T junior team is being sponsored for the tenth year by Republic Bank.

Marquez, the most senior of the boys representing T&T at the Championships, is also confident in his team. He won the boys’ 16-17 category last year, and is hoping he and his teammates can emulate that performance at North South, where they are expected to face very windy conditions. He wants to end his junior career on a high.

“Last year I think the boys won every category and the girls also had a good performance. Once we put together good scores (every day), we’ll do well,” said Marquez.

“We’ve had practices every week, couple times a week. The team is very well bonded and I think the preparation is (going) very well.”

The 17-year-old stressed on the mental side of golf, and is happy to get the extra support that Sammy is providing them. Once they play as a team, he said, T&T should be able to bring home the overall title.

“The team is a very strong team and golf is an individual sport, but together you comprise a team,” he explained. “Once everyone plays their part, the team will do very well. Last year we were second, we’ve been second a few times, so we’re looking to do better.

“This year the guys are pretty strong, the girls also. I think we have a pretty good chance this year.”