Team 10 powers into Sandals Global Travel Advisors golf final

PETER Drab, Damon Spady, Megan Sams and Scott Austin carded an even 58, on both days’ play, to top the 19th Annual United States Travel Advisors Golf Tournament with a total of 116 on Friday, booking their spots to the Global Travel Advisors Golf Tournament set for Sandals Emerald Bay, October 10-14, in The Bahamas.

Teeing off as Team 10 in the four-man scramble at Sandals’ Upton Estate Golf and Country Club in St Mary, the quartet’s consistency over 36 holes powered them to a seven-stroke win over Teams 6 and 8, who carded exact scores of 62 and 61, totalling 123 apiece.

Jake Coldiron, national manager, golf sales, Unique Vacations Limited, said October’s Global Travel Advisors Golf Tournament will pit the “best of the best” of Sandals travel advisers - champions of the 2022 Latin American, United States and Baxter Canadian tournaments - against this year’s United States and Latin American winners.

Coldiron explained that this year’s Canadian Baxter Travel Advisors Tournament winners will compete in the 2024 Global Travel Advisors Golf Championship Tournament because the Jamaican event is annually held near the end of October.

Playing as an ‘invitee’ in 2022, Coldiron led Team 5 to championship honours in the Canadian Baxter Travel Advisors Tournament. Uruguay will have two teams at Emerald Bay this year, having won the Latin American tournament as Team 19 in 2022 with captain Rodrigo Gimenez, alongside Alvaro Firdo, Gabriel Ustinelli and Gustavo Pinas.

Uruguay’s Jorge Bardot, Jose Cabrera, Leonardo Curutchague and Andres Ellisalde were 2023 Latin American winners. Jay Noller of Idaho led Team 6 to a thrilling victory in last year’s United States tournament, three birdies in a row, rallying from second to beat day-one joint leaders, Team 20, by one stroke.

All the qualifying tournaments were held at Sandals’ Upton Estate Golf and Country Club, staged annually by the resort to promote Jamaica as a golfing destination, while giving the resort chain’s travel advisers personal experiences of its properties and the island’s varied attractions.

The Global Travel Advisors Golf Tournament will mark the return of Sandals Travel Advisors golf to The Bahamas, which, unlike Jamaica, hasn’t staged a tournament since 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Jamaica, being among the first countries to reopen its borders to international travel, was able to resume hosting tournaments in 2022.

“Bahamas staging the tournament next month is a big deal to us,” said Coldiron. “That hasn’t happened since 2019 and we are using the Global Travel Advisors Golf Tournament to mark the return of travel advisers golf there,” he pointed out, adding that the top prize is the winning team being rewarded with a trip to any Sandals Resort.