De­fend­ing ladies cham­pi­on Ja­maica’s Jo­di Munn-Bar­row and Trinidad and To­ba­go’s Liam Bry­den set the ear­ly pace on Day 1 of the 118th Trinidad and To­ba­go Golf Open which teed off at the pic­turesque St An­drews Golf Club in Mo­ka, Mar­aval on Fri­day.

Munn-Bar­row po­si­tioned her­self strong­ly to de­fend her crown af­ter card­ing a sev­en over par 79 to lead the nine-play­er field Ladies Di­vi­sion af­ter the open­ing round.

The Ja­maican holds a com­fort­able five-stroke cush­ion head­ing in­to to­day’s play in which Munn-Bar­rown is chal­leng­ing eight play­ers from T&T.

Trinidad and To­ba­go’s Vic­to­ria Seenath sits in sec­ond place af­ter post­ing a 12 over par 84, while com­pa­tri­ot Is­abel­la Ramdeen oc­cu­pies third af­ter re­turn­ing a 15-over-par score on day one.

In the high­ly com­pet­i­tive Men’s Cham­pi­onship Di­vi­sion, Bry­den pro­duced the round of the day, fir­ing an im­pres­sive two un­der par 70 to take a two-stroke lead at the top of the leader­board from St Lu­cia’s Yad­hu Urs sits in sec­ond po­si­tion af­ter an even-par 72, while de­fend­ing cham­pi­on, T&T’s Chris Richards Jr., re­mains well with­in strik­ing dis­tance in third place af­ter a one over par 73.

Com­par­tiot Ross Ramkissoon is fourth fol­low­ing a two over par 74, while Adri­an Nor­ford rep­re­sent­ing St Kitts and Nevis rounds out the top five af­ter post­ing a five over par 77. There are 29 play­ers vy­ing for ti­tle ho­n­ours.

The Se­niors Di­vi­sion is be­ing led by Ri­car­do Ca­ma­cho, who re­turned a four over par 76 to take the ear­ly ad­van­tage. Zeke Per­ci­val and Scott Stollmey­er are tied for sec­ond af­ter both shot six-over-par 78, while Clint Al­fred holds fourth po­si­tion with sev­en over par. Among the fa­mil­iar sport­ing faces in the field, for­mer Trinidad and To­ba­go foot­ball cap­tain Rus­sell Lat­apy is tied for fifth on nine over par, while leg­endary West In­dies bats­man Bri­an Lara is tied for 12th with four oth­er play­ers, af­ter fin­ish­ing the round at 13-over-par. Twen­ty-nine are chal­leng­ing each oth­er.

There’s al­so keep com­pe­ti­tion in the First and Sec­ond Flights, Su­per Se­niors and Mas­ters.

Ac­tion re­sumes to­day from 6:30 a.m.

Men's Cham­pi­onship Di­vi­sion*Gross

Liam Bry­den*70

Yad­hu Urs-6*72

Chris Richards*73

Ross Ramkissoon*74

Sam­son Avey*75

Adri­an Nor­ford*77

Mar­cus Ling*79

Jer­seem Boodram*79

Ay­den Ali*80

Thomas Ban­non*80

Roy­ron Adams*80

Xza­vier Wig­gins*80

Mau­rice Forde*81

Bob­by Edghill*82

William Shaw*82

Shane Costel­lo*82

Daniel En­rique Vanososte*83

Jor­dan Stephens*84

Ethan Col­lier*84

Ro­manus In­glis*84

Alex Kan­goo*84

Clay­ton Har­ridyal*86

Al­pha Jack­man*86

Zi­co Cor­reia*87

Ladies Di­vi­sion*Gross

Jo­di Munn- Bar­row*79

Vic­to­ria Seenath*84

Is­abel­la Ramdeen*87

Em­i­lie Ram­sa­hai*90

Kahlan Fran­cis*90

Elise La Bor­de*91*

Tori De­fre­itas Bap­tiste*93

In­grid See­ber­an*96

Vi­o­let Roopchan*101