Junior golfers who did not make the top ten Bermudian finishers in the recent Bank of Bermuda Foundation International Junior Golf Championship may still get to play in upcoming Jim McLean Future Collegians World Tour (FCWT) competitions, writes Gayle Alleyne.

This is because school commitments are preventing some of the top finishers from accepting the tournament exemptions which were offered as incentives to local players during the championship, held over Easter weekend at Mid Ocean Golf Club.

So far, three of the top eight Bermudian finishers - David Boyce, Steven Roy and Jason Darrell - have indicated they will be unable to play in the FCWT National Championships in Florida or the FCWT Eastern Regional, both scheduled for next month.

The top five Bermudian finishers received qualifying exemptions for the first tournament while the sixth, seventh and eighth-placed locals were given exemptions for the Eastern Regional tournament.

"We are looking to move up the next Bermudian finishers in line and we're communicating with them to see if they can go but some of them are overseas.

"It's a big thing to be able to jump on a plane and go to play a tournament in Florida with a month's notice when you're in the middle of exams, especially if you're one of the kids taking the GCSE and that's what we have in a couple situations," explained Bermuda Junior Golf Association (BJGA) representative and one of the tournament organisers Allan Dunkle.

The next Bermudians in line to benefit from the exemptions, are Ryan Marshall, Thomas Edwards, Tyler Marshall and Camiko Smith, in that order.

However, time is running out fast as the sign-up deadline for those wishing to take advantage of the exemptions is April 15.

"We hope to get a good representation from Bermuda in these tournaments as this will be the first time the Island is participating," said Dunkle.

Response to the tournament was "excellent", he said, and all-round feedback was positive. There are high hopes for an encore in 2003.

"Right now we are having a review of how it went and we need to make sure that Mid Ocean and the Bank of Bermuda are still interested. We certainly are (BJGA). It was done on the basis of `Let's see how it goes'.

"We hope to have those discussions in the next few weeks. Hopefully everyone will be on board and we can do it again next year and be even more successful."