T&T's Ben Mar­tin be­gan his quest for a record sev­enth T&T Golf Open Pro­fes­sion­al ti­tle by lead­ing the 12-man field at the end of the first day of play at the St An­drews Golf Club, Mo­ka, Mar­aval, on Thurs­day.

Mar­tin shot a score of 74 in the swirling wind in sec­tions of the Mar­aval Val­ley course. The six-time win­ner is ahead of fel­low T&T golfer Chris Richard Sr and Ja­maican Justin Bur­rows who are joint sec­ond, tied on 75. Bur­rows' com­pa­tri­ots Orville Christie (77) and Wes­ley Brown (78) are next, fol­lowed by Amer­i­can Zachary Ramey (80).

For­mer two-time cham­pi­on lo­cal An­tho­ny Gill and an­oth­er Amer­i­can Rick Burk are in­sep­a­ra­ble in sev­enth with a score of 81.

Lo­cal play­ers dom­i­nat­ed the oth­er cat­e­gories with Di­nesh Jack­ree ahead in the First Flight and Nand­lal Ram­lakhan sit­ting on top in the Sec­ond Flight. Neil Latch­mans­ingh is in the pole po­si­tion in the Se­niors.

Jack­ree hit 75 to lead the First Flight Di­vi­sion as T&T golfers oc­cu­py the top six po­si­tions. Four­teen-year-old Ethan Col­lier is in the run­ner-up spot (77) with Dushyant Sookram (81) in third. Asa Roopc­hand, an­oth­er teenag­er Ben Laugh­lin and Willie Med­ford are tied in fourth on 84. St Lu­cia's Roy­ron Adams is in sev­enth. West In­dies crick­et coach Dar­ren Sam­my is in 21st (96).

In the Sec­ond Flight, Ra­makhan is out front (86) with Cana­di­an Pramie Sad­hoo fol­low­ing be­hind (89). Lo­cal play­ers Ed­di­son Sagram and Raphael Rose (90) are tied in third as T&T golfers oc­cu­py the next three spots.

Amer­i­can Niki­ta Gubenko took charge of the Cham­pi­onship Flight with a score of 71 with top lo­cal Chris Richards Jr and Bar­ba­di­an Xavier Wig­gins in joint sec­ond on 73. Puer­to Ri­co's Amalio Ve­ga com­pletes the top four on 75.

Ryan Gomez and Gabriel Vanososte en­sured that lo­cal play­ers are in the top eight as both are in fifth (76) along with de­fend­ing cham­pi­on Zan­dre Roye of Ja­maica.

Latch­mans­ingh went ahead in the Se­niors (50 and Over) class with 75 with Dr Mark Newham of Ja­maica (77), St Kitts and Nevis play­er Zeke Per­ci­val (80), Bal­don­ick Fer­nan­dez Sr (83) and Cana­di­an Bri­an Muir (86) next on the stand­ings. West In­dies crick­et leg­end Bri­an Lara is among a trio of lo­cal play­ers (Desmond Am­brose, Hol­lis Bois­son) tied in sixth on 87.

Mar­tin said he was hap­py with his play on the ear­ly holes.

"I played re­al­ly sol­id in the front nine (holes) but the back nine (holes) my putting left me a bit. I did play very well in the back. It was tricky with the swirling winds as oc­curs in the val­ley. That grass was not easy."

To­day, he is hop­ing for bet­ter for­tune. "I have to play my game and hope­ful­ly the luck goes my way."

Ac­tion tees off at 6.30 in the morn­ing with Se­niors TTO's Clay­ton Fe­lix and Desrond Am­brose and St Lu­cia's Zeke Per­ci­val, the first play­ers to line up.

Mar­tin is set to swing his club at 8.18 am along with Ve­ga and Re­my Smith of St Lu­cia. At 9.12 am it will be the turn of Gubenko.

Lara tees off at 7.15 am. He will hope to re­cov­er from a sore leg which ham­pered his play yes­ter­day.

Day One Re­sults

Pro­fes­sion­al

1 Ben Mar­tin (TTO) 74

2 Chris Richards Sr (TTO)/Justin Bur­rows (JAM) 75

4 Orville Christie (JAM) 77

5 Wes­ley Brown (JAM) 78

6 Zachary Ramey (USA) 80

7 An­tho­ny Gill (TTO)/Rick Burk (USA) 81

Cham­pi­onships

1 Niki­ta Gubenko (USA) 71

2 Chris Richards Jr (TTO)/Xavier Wig­gins (BAR) 73

First Flight

1 Di­nesh Jack­ree (TTO) 75

2 Ethan Col­lier (TTO) 77

3 Dushyant Sookram (TTO) 81

Sec­ond Flight

1 Nand­lal Ram­lakhan (TTO) 86

2 Pramie Sad­hoo (CAN) 89

3 Ed­d­sion Sagram (TT) 90