CHAMPIONS JUDD COZIER and Debbie Fung were resisting all comers over the first 18-holes of the 2014 United Insurance/ Digicel/ Diamonds International Rockley Open Golf tournament.
After the early rounds yesterday, Cozier, seeking a seventh title on the tight Rockley course, shot an even par 70 to keep himself in the running going into the last 18 holes today.
Cozier registered two birdies and 14 par scores, while Michael Date, a former Barbados Davis Cup tennis player, was just three strokes off the pace with a gross 73.
Fung was also leading a field of 18 women, with a gross 82 after posting 39 on the front nine and 43 on the back. She is hoping to fend off the likes of 2012 champion Helen Foster and experienced Barbados player Julia Stephenson on the last day.
Both Foster and Stephenson played the later rounds.
Eighty-five players, including a number of promising juniors, are taking part in the prestigious annual tournament which has also attracted several overseas players from Canada and England.
Among the juniors teeing off yesterday were 13-year-old Queen’s College student Xavier Wiggins; Iz Hustler of Combermere and 17-year-old Donald Leacock of Harrison College.
Canadian junior Nathan Douglas, a 13-year-old Toronto resident playing the tournament for the first time, has also been attracting attention with solid drives and chips. Wiggins shot a gross 84 over 18 holes, but scores were not available for the other juniors who were also playing the later rounds.
