After winning medals in the 2022 Northern Marianas Pacific Mini Games, NMI golfers are feeling the pressure of bringing home hardware from the 2023 Pacific Games in Honiara, the Solomons Islands.

Northern Marianas Pacific Mini Games Junior Athlete awardee Zhimin Jin, who earned a gold medal in the individual event in last year’s competition, personally admitted the pressure that goes with representing the island’s anew after a successful campaign in the Mini Games.

“To be very honest, I do feel pressured to bring back good news from the Solomon Games. However, my goal for this upcoming competition is to just try my best and focus on my game,” said the Marianas High School student.

Jin is the NMI’s lone female entry in the golf event in the 2023 Pacific Games. In the men’s field, Team Marianas will have Joe “Kamikaze” Camacho, Ben Jones Jr., Joe Sasamoto, and Franco Santos. Marco Peter is the team manager. The golf competition will take place from Nov. 22 to 25, 2023 at the Honiara Golf Club.

Santos was part of the NMI Men’s Team that won the bronze medal in last year’s Pacific Mini Games, while Sasamoto and Jones are newcomers on the national squad. Camacho is Jin’s coach last year and is no stranger to golf competitions in the region, having represented the NMI in Mini and Pacific Games as a player on several occasions.

“This is a whole new team from the squad that the won bronze, a more experienced team this time around. With that, I feel like we’re more pressured to bring home a medal than the last team,” said Santos.

He added that playing in a nine-hole course in Honiara will be a challenge and they need to make the adjustments early

“I think if we strategize on how the course is laid out and see what options we have to make things easier for us to compete in someone else’s arena, things will go our way and we can possibly bring home the gold,” Santos said.

Both the men’s and women’s individual events will be a four-round competition and the NMI golfers will be playing against the representatives of Cook Islands, Fiji, New Caledonia, PNG, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tahiti, Tonga, and Vanuatu.

The NMI National Golf Team and the rest of the Team Marianas are supported by Joeten Daidai Foundation, Triple J, Crowne Plaza Resort, IT&E, IP&E, Tan Siu Lin Foundation, Mobil, Tan Holdings, and McDonald’s Guam & Saipan. (PR)

Golf

After winning medals in the 2022 Northern Marianas Pacific Mini Games, NMI golfers are feeling the pressure of bringing home hardware from the 2023 Pacific Games in Honiara, the Solomons Islands.

Northern Marianas Pacific Mini Games Junior Athlete awardee Zhimin Jin, who earned a gold medal in the individual event in last year’s competition, personally admitted the pressure that goes with representing the island’s anew after a successful campaign in the Mini Games.

“To be very honest, I do feel pressured to bring back good news from the Solomon Games. However, my goal for this upcoming competition is to just try my best and focus on my game,” said the Marianas High School student.

Jin is the NMI’s lone female entry in the golf event in the 2023 Pacific Games. In the men’s field, Team Marianas will have Joe “Kamikaze” Camacho, Ben Jones Jr., Joe Sasamoto, and Franco Santos. Marco Peter is the team manager. The golf competition will take place from Nov. 22 to 25, 2023 at the Honiara Golf Club.

Santos was part of the NMI Men’s Team that won the bronze medal in last year’s Pacific Mini Games, while Sasamoto and Jones are newcomers on the national squad. Camacho is Jin’s coach last year and is no stranger to golf competitions in the region, having represented the NMI in Mini and Pacific Games as a player on several occasions.

“This is a whole new team from the squad that the won bronze, a more experienced team this time around. With that, I feel like we’re more pressured to bring home a medal than the last team,” said Santos.

He added that playing in a nine-hole course in Honiara will be a challenge and they need to make the adjustments early

“I think if we strategize on how the course is laid out and see what options we have to make things easier for us to compete in someone else’s arena, things will go our way and we can possibly bring home the gold,” Santos said.

Both the men’s and women’s individual events will be a four-round competition and the NMI golfers will be playing against the representatives of Cook Islands, Fiji, New Caledonia, PNG, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tahiti, Tonga, and Vanuatu.

The NMI National Golf Team and the rest of the Team Marianas are supported by Joeten Daidai Foundation, Triple J, Crowne Plaza Resort, IT&E, IP&E, Tan Siu Lin Foundation, Mobil, Tan Holdings, and McDonald’s Guam & Saipan. (PR)

Golf