Hastings equals course record to win 58th JGA Open

Justin Hastings of the Cayman Islands equalled the Vybwear Jamaica Golf Open record after shooting 12-under-par 204 over 54 holes at the Tryall Club in Hanover. The 23-year-old former San Diego State player shot a three-under-par 69 in the final round on Tuesday to win the trophy and collect the US$20,000 first prize cheque. He said he was pleased with his performance over the three days. “It’s super cool to hear that I equalled the record. I had no idea, to be totally honest, but yeah, I mean it was a great week. I felt like I was kind of in control all week, and then coming down the stretch there with the weather, it got a little bit weird, but yeah, happy to get it done in the end.” Hastings held off first-day leader Tyler Stachkunas, who shot a six-under-par 66 in the final round to finish second on nine-under-par 207. Nicholas Estrada was third on seven-under-par 209. Jamaica’s Justin Burrowes recorded his best finish at the Open as a professional, sharing fourth place with Canadians Ty Celone and Cougar Collins on four-under-par 212. They finished one shot ahead of John Baptiste Hakizimana of the United States, who was sixth on three-under-par 213. It was Hastings’ first appearance at the Jamaica Open, although he said he had been trying to fit the tournament into his schedule for some time. He also praised the Tryall course. “The course was amazing. You know, it provides so many different decisions for you to have to make, which I think is a property of a really good golf course,” he said. “It’s going to reward good shots, but it’s really going to punish bad shots. That’s what makes a golf course really, really good and a real championship test.” Burrowes, who has won the amateur section of the Open, was also pleased with his performance. “Personally, I felt like I played well this week. As I said yesterday, you know, as a golfer, you always nitpick the things that I didn’t do and the things that I could have done better. But all in all, I’m, you know, playing solid, and I’m happy with where my game is at.” He also praised the tournament’s organisation. “This is always one of my favourite tournaments, and I just want to thank Vybwear, Tryall, and everybody that was involved in just making this such a good tournament. There’s a lot of work, obviously, behind the scenes. I thought the tournament was run really, really well.” Jamaica Golf Association (JGA) President Jody Munn Barrow was pleased with the number of entries after the tournament was cancelled last year because of Hurricane Melissa. “I think it was great. I mean, we were ready and ready set to go last year. We had quite a lot of entries. I think we had over 70 entries, and then we had to pull the plug. We actually got close to 80 entries this year, which I think, you know, is a very good sign for Jamaica. It shows that Jamaica is open once again, ready to welcome people and ready to showcase our golf offerings.” Munn Barrow told the Jamaica Observer that securing sponsorship remained a challenge, and said the association was grateful for Vybwear’s support. “The main difficulty we found this year was sponsorship. Once again, Vybwear came on board, but without their support, we probably would not have had the Open, as outside of the regular product sponsors that we got, we did not have a lot of other corporate Jamaican sponsors. ATL Automotive did come in for a pro-am, which was nice, but the level of sponsorship was lower than what we had confirmed for 2025, which is why the blow of not having it last year was great for the Jamaica Golf Association.” She also pointed to the additional social media coverage provided by Vybwear as a positive from this year’s tournament and said the association hoped to attract between 90 and 100 players in 2027. “The main positive, she said, was the additional social media outreach that was brought in by Vybwear. I think we got so much coverage online. I think that would all go well going into 2027, and hopefully we will maybe get to 90 participants, maybe even 100 participants, but we will see.” Tryall Director of Golf Ewan Peebles was pleased with how the course held up despite damage caused by Hurricane Melissa and heavy rainfall in the days leading up to the tournament. “I think it played very well. The team here prepared the golf course beautifully; it’s a little softer and not quite as fast as we would ideally like, but that’s the norm at this time of the year,” he told the Jamaica Observer. “But once again, the golf course is separating the very best players from the rest. There are a couple of great young players at the top of the leader board, and then there’s, you know, there’s quite a spread in scoring as you move down through the leader board, and that’s what this golf course does. “Just because it was a little softer underfoot this week, I mean the wind still blew, and the back nine in particular caused all sorts of problems for the vast majority of the field,” he said. Hastings, who was tied for the lead with Estrada at the start of the final round on Tuesday, played steadily before recording a double bogey six on the par-four 17th. By then, he had built a comfortable lead and was five-under-par for the round. Stachkunas could have mounted a late challenge, but for bogeys on the par-five third and par-three 12th. He made four consecutive birdies between the fifth and eighth holes and added four more on the back nine. Burrowes recovered from a bogey on the second hole to make three birdies on the front nine and two more late in the round. Xavier Wiggins of Barbados was the leading amateur on four-over-par 220, six shots ahead of second-placed Daniel De Quintal of the Cayman Islands, who finished on 10-over-par 226 after shooting a three-under-par round on Tuesday. Oshae Haye was the leading Jamaican amateur on 23-over-par 239.