21st ANNUAL ST. MAARTEN OPEN GOLF TOURNAMENT
Mullet Bay Golf Course
April 6 & 7, 2013
Mullet Bay – The St. Maarten Golf Association SMGA will host its 21st annual St. Maarten Open Golf Tournament on Saturday and Sunday, april 6 and 7th, 2013, at the Mullet Bay Golf Course.
The Open will begin with registration on Friday, April 5th, at the Golf Course, followed by an opening reception for all participants, sponsors, media and invited guests from 7pm until 10pm at PRIVE Hookah Bar & Lounge in Simpson Bay. Guests will have a chance to mix and mingle and greet many long-time friends from other islands as wel as meeting new ones.
Visit www.stmaartengolf.com for more information or click here to download the registration form.
So far the SMGA received close to the maximum allowed amount of 85 participants. Including a large contingent of local players from St. Maarten and St. Martin. There will be some of the most talented and highly competitive golfers from our neighbouring islands like St. Kitts, Anguilla, and Curacao including a big delegation of 20 golfers from Guadeloupe.
This 36 holes stroke play tournament will kick off with the first round of 18 holes on Saturday morning April 6th at 7am. The second round will be played on Sunday, April 7th. Following the tournament, an awards and recognition party will be held at SKY BEACH Rooftop Beach & Lounge in Maho for participants, sponsors, media and invited guests between 6pm and 9pm.
The SMGA is a non-profit organization of avid golfers that promotes the practice of the game of golf and to foster community sense. The SMGA organizes golf matches and tournaments for its members and non-members and donates most of its proceeds that are made through membership fees and during these events like the St. Maarten Open to multiple community organizations on the island.
Net proceeds from the 21st Annual St. Maarten Open Golf Tournament will benefit multiple pre-selected local community organizations like that:
– No Kidding With Our Kids Foundation
– Art Saves Lives Foundation
– Generation New Status STM Band
– Junior Golf Association of St. Maarten
The Board of the St. Maarten Golf Association
The board of the SMGA consists of the following members:
Keith Graham – President
Kenny Patterson – Vice President
Mark Haunauer – Treasurer
Greg Whyte
Marc van Iersel
Ricardo Perez
Rodney Tackling
Visit http://www.stmaartengolf.com for more information and to download the registration form.
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A viable approach to sports for St. Maarten
by Rudy (Louis) Engel
There remains no doubt that sports contributes to a healthy life and that it is the core obligation of any government to provide facilities to promote such. Facilities such as these should be built by government (as is the case), and must be run privately; however, I also believe that it must provide desired results.
A lot of emphasis has been placed by the various governments on the building of basketball courts for several neighbourhoods. In principal there would be nothing wrong with this, however, time and again it has been proven to be a waste of the taxpayer’s money. After a very short time, the courts are vandalised, used as derelict hangout sights and even a place to intimidate and bully others. In my opinion, the reason that these non-productive and destructive activities take place is directly linked to lack of committed participation, proper training and supervised involvement. Emphasis must be put on the quality rather than quantity.
It is my opinion that government must seriously consider building sport centres rather than basketball courts. Be it enclosed or open-air, such a facility provides far more benefits than just a basketball court. The benefit of this type of facility is that it offers first and foremost physical exercise, which is the key element in all sports. Next to physical exercise, choices should be given of the various sports that can be practiced within the layout of the facility such as basketball, volleyball, dodge ball, gymnastics and other sports. More importantly, teaching and supervision are essential for proper usage and achievement and will lead to the desired effects.
If a person wants to be involved in sports they have to show commitment. It is an unequivocal fact that, that which is given easy, is not appreciated and is misused and abused. A basketball court should be built for its purpose which, in this case are practices and tournaments. If not built specifically for or with this intention, it defeats the purpose and becomes a place of derelict and nuisance. It is a misuse of valuable and much needed funds and location. The same must be said for any other sports facilities.
It is also an indisputable fact that, that which is not properly taught or exercised is non-productive. Building basketball court(s) or any sports facility for that matter without providing training defeats the purpose. When considering constructing sport facilities all elements must be included.
A sports facility without facilitators does not provide desired results. Any sports facility built must have a sports trainer/physical education teacher whose job it is to teach the relevant sports and provide guidance in the sense of which direction a person can or should pursue in sports. All sports trainers must make physical exercise an integral part of their training.
The benefit of having physical exercise as the core of any sports facility is that it opens doors for many others whom would not necessarily choose to participate in a specific sport, but want to maintain a healthy body and lifestyle. It also brings adults and youngsters together, thus encouraging more discipline and respect for others. The presence of a trainer or phys-ed. teacher and participating adults on the sports facilities may serve as a deterrent for those who choose to abuse such facilities and/or impede others from making proper use of these facilities.
Supervision and management are of paramount importance to the continuation and success of such a facility. Guarantee and accountability must be given of proper usage. A board, preferably comprising members of the neighbourhood and phys-ed. teachers must be instituted with organisational and supervision tasks.
As taxpayers, we all contribute financially to providing these sports facilities and centres. It is only logical for one to get involved in a productive manner in order to guarantee proper usage and benefit from such a project.
I am a strong proponent of building facilities for the purpose of sports development. The key word here is development. I must insist that quantity is not the way to go. It looks good on paper to say that every district has a basketball court or a sports facility; however, it looks really bad when one drives by and sees that it is dilapidated and misused.
It is by far more productive to have a few well run sports facilities, which will attract suitable users. I am certain that if implemented with a complete infrastructure, people will find ways and means to reach these facilities in order to benefit from the various programmes offered.
Source: The Daily Herald
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The St. Maarten Government wants to improve the sports infrastructure on the island of St. Maarten. The intention is to set up one foundation to manage all the sporting facilities on St. Maarten. Research is presently being conducted to determine the proper structure for this sports foundation.
Minister of Infrastructure William Marlin confirmed on Wednesday, September 12th, 2012, reports that a cricket stadium, drag strip and football field will be built in Philipsburg in the Pond Island area.
Speaking at the weekly Council of Ministers press briefing, he did not have time to expound on the details of these projects, citing a pending meeting immediately following the briefing.
However, he confirmed that the sand being transported to the field was from the dredging being executed at the harbour facilities, the drag strip would not be located on the same side of Great Salt Pond as the racetrack and cricket stadium, and the car-crushing facility would be relocated.
He could not say when the projects would be “rolled out,” as they are still in development stages. He said the Ministry of Housing and Spatial Planning, Environment and Infrastructure VROMI had provided the coordinates this week to delineate the areas for filling.
Marlin defended the projects by citing the need to develop sports tourism as a means of diversifying the economy. Having a cricket stadium suitable to host international matches will attract people who would not come to St. Maarten under normal circumstances, he said. Additionally, finding an another location for a cricket stadium is imperative, as part of the road network (Link 2) will run through the property where cricket currently is played.
He noted that while drag strip racing is very popular among local people, unfortunately there is no professional strip on either side of the island.
When former Commissioner of Sports Frans Richardson proposed the drag strip in August 2010, the project called for the construction of a quarter-mile strip, followed by a “stopping area” of almost an eighth of a mile. At that time the intention had been for the Drag Racing Association to look for funding, managing and maintaining the strip, while government was to commit to designing the facility and transferring the land to the association.
Richardson had indicated that more of the Great Salt Pond would have to be filled in and provision would have to be made to protect Philipsburg and the strip itself from flooding. At the time he was certain that new water pumps would suffice.
No information was immediately available about a range of matters associated with the project, including the overall financing of the project and its related activities (trucking of sand, etc.); how much of the pond is being filled in, considering that the pond is at or near its carrying capacity; environmental impact; safety measures for the drag strip; noise pollution; parking and traffic considerations; and drainage.