Jarryd Dillas and Damian Palanyandi will be looking to continue their dominance at the Bermuda Four-Ball Championships at Port Royal Golf Course this weekend.

The highly successful amateurs have won the men’s title in five of the last six years and are again expected to be thick in the hunt for honours at this year’s 36-hole tournament, which is to be held on Saturday and Sunday in what could prove challenging conditions.

“Jarryd and I are looking forward to defending our title and we’re hoping to play well and make it four in a row,” Palanyandi told The Royal Gazette. “However, there are many good teams and players out there and anything can happen in this format if someone gets hot.

“The Bermuda Four-Ball Championships is probably one of the best tournaments the Bermuda Golf Association puts on. It’s certainly one of my favourite formats to play with usually the largest field of players.

“It can get nerve-racking at times but the strategy and gamesmanship involved is what makes it so fun.”

Among the teams attempting to put an end to Dillas and Palanyandi’s dominance are last year’s runners-up Jevon Roberts and Oliver Betschart who are keen to capture a maiden title this time around.

“We were second last year and obviously we would love to do one better this year,” Roberts said.

“Jarryd and Damian are formidable defending champions so we are going to have to play really well in order to beat those guys.

“Jarryd is just coming off the Latin American Championships so I am sure he is playing some pretty good golf right now and Damian is always a solid player.

“When you’re playing Damian you are not going to get too many big, big numbers, so Oliver and I know we are going to have to play well, and that’s what we are aiming to do on Saturday and Sunday.

“There are a couple of other good teams out there as well so our focus can’t be just on Damian and Jarryd but more playing the golf course and making sure we play as neat and tidy as possible.

“We are just looking to play well, play solid, make minimum mistakes and just take what the golf course gives. We’ll try to do the best we can and if we do that we will be pretty good.”

Other local teams expected to be around the top of the leaderboard include the teams of James Godwin and Chris Ford, Gordon Cox and Sam Butler, Roderick Forrest and Alex Evans, Matthew Durrant and Craig Brown, John King and Allistair Lynch and Roger Brangman and Shawn Knight.

Also challenging for the title is the overseas team of Jeff Eiserman and Kirk Viehl, who are no strangers to the island having previously competed in several tournaments.

Meanwhile, a new champion will be crowned in both the ladies and senior men’s divisions this year.

Cindy Ratzlaff and Morgan Lightbourne are not defending their ladies’ title with the latter pairing up with Linda Down this time around to form a formidable pair expected to be in contention for the vacant crown.

The team of Katrin Burnie and Carine Brule, Tracy Burgess and Ann Symonds, Kim Botelho and Alisa Sadeh and Valerie Nearon and Ann Marie DeSilva are also expected to be fighting it out for honours.

Robert Vallis and Arthur Jones are not back to defend their senior men’s title with the team of Mike McCrimmon and Gary Carr, siblings Tim and Barry Brewer and Craig Christensen and Miles Stephens among the favourites to claim the title