There will be no ladies’ champion crowned in the Bermuda Amateur Match Play Championship at Port Royal Golf Course tomorrow.

Organisers were forced to cancel the ladies’ competition due to low numbers owing to scheduling conflicts with other tournaments.

“Due to low numbers we had to cancel the ladies’ championship division with only three ladies registered,” Darrin Lewis, the Bermuda Golf Association general secretary, told The Royal Gazette.

“We are fighting against conflicting tournaments. I think there’s a Mid Ocean Invitational Ladies’ tournament going on as well so that’s always a challenge and we have some ladies overseas.”

Last year saw organisers revise the ladies’ championship, won by Tracy Burgess, who produced a flawless 3-0 record on the way to the title, from match play to a round-robin format also due to a low turnout.

“The round-robin was just so we can get some play in but hopefully moving forward we can increase the ladies’ field so we can have an outright match play that gets world amateur golf ranking points,” Lewis said.

Meanwhile, a new men’s amateur match play champion will be crowned this year as last year’s winner Kenny Leseur is no longer eligible having since turned professional.

The men’s championship got underway at Port Royal yesterday with 18-holes of stroke play to determine the qualifying order for the match play phase of the three-day event.

Nine-times champion Jarryd Dillas (72) won the medal round by one shot over Saltus Grammar School student Arman Newton (73), with another promising youngster Oliver Betschart (74) rounding off the top three on the leaderboard another shot back.

Sheldon Chychrun (78) won the senior men's championship stroke play qualifier by two shots over nearest rival Craig Christensen (80), with Steven Perry (81) finishing another shot back to round off the top three.

Action continues today at Port Royal with the men’s championship round of sixteen and senior men’s quarter-final, with the finals taking place tomorrow.