In other words, the stakes for actually winning this thing are enormous, and those are the stakes that Argentina’s Mateo Fernandez de Oliveira conquered on Sunday at the Grand Reserve Golf Club, clad in his national colours of light blue and white, a day before celebrating his 23rd birthday. A final-round 67 for a record-setting 23-under 265 total (the best in seven previous LAACs was 273 from Joaquin Niemann in 2018), gave him for a four-stroke victory and tee times at Augusta National, Los Angeles Country Club and Royal Liverpool, among other destinations.

Fernandez de Oliveira knew all too well the dearth of finishing second. He was runner-up at this event a year ago, failing to birdie the relatively easy final hole at Casa de Campo to miss out on a playoff with Aaron Jarvis. His preparation and focus on the mental side of the game are already famous among his supporters — one of his coaches, Hernan Rey, had caddied for a student at the Puerto Rico Open at Grand Reserve, and three months ago Fernandez de Oliveira called him to get the yardage book to start preparing — but that didn’t mean Sunday would be any kind of coronation. The 34th ranked amateur in the world knew when he woke up at 4.40am, unable to fall back asleep, and later when cameras filmed him eating breakfast, that this would not be an ordinary round.

The good news for him is that he held a four-shot overnight lead this time around, a far cry from 2022 when he had to charge from far behind. The bad news was that his nearest competition, Mexico’s Luis Carrera, came out looking like Tiger Woods.

Grand Reserve sits on a small peninsula on Puerto Rico’s northern coast, overlooking Comezon Cove and the Atlantic beyond. It’s a flat stretch of tropical paradise, covered in palm trees and connected to the Hyatt resort. The course sits in the coastal valley between the duelling juggernauts of mountain and sea — both visible on each hole — fully exposed to the elements. Fernandez de Oliveira might even have welcomed a bit of challenging weather on Sunday, but instead he got placid, windless conditions, which opened the door for a charge from below. Carrera led that charge, making six birdies in his first 11 holes, and as they stood on the 12th tee, Fernandez de Olivera’s lead had been cut to two.

It’s a situation that inevitably invoked some old ghosts. Close calls had become a bit of an accidental habit for the Argentine, and not just at the LAAC. Last spring, at the NCAA Championship, the Arkansas Razorback bogeyed his last two holes to finish two shots out of a playoff. Last summer at the prestigious Western Amateur, he lost in the final to Austin Greaser after finishing tied for fifth a month earlier at the European Amateur. He had his successes too, including a 4-0-0 record at the Arnold Palmer Cup, but had yet to capture one of the truly “major” amateur events. As his college coach Brad McMakin said on Friday, the LAAC was something he lived and breathed, and his near-miss last year was a kind of devastation. A motivational devastation, but a devastation nonetheless.

Despite Carrera’s charge, though, Fernandez de Oliveira held strong. He didn’t quite reach the blistering pace of Saturday’s 63, but he too was pouring in the birdies and doing enough to stay just ahead. A change he made in this game for this week was to “verbalize his intentions to his caddie,” according to Rey, which meant that before every shot, he would discuss exactly what he meant to do, why he was doing it and where he was aiming. And if the momentum seemed to be going against him, he changed it forcibly back on the 12th tee, a 312-yard par 4. With a single swing, he seized the initiative and perhaps the tournament, pasting a drive to 12 feet. He missed the eagle putt, but when he made birdie and Carrera missed his own short birdie putt, the lead was back to three with six holes to play.

“He played amazing,” Fernandez de Oliveira said of Carrera. “He made it hard on me, that’s for sure. But that driver was a great swing at the right time, I knew I had the perfect number and I liked the wind to be aggressive there, from right to left, and it was a great time of the round.”

The pressure was squarely back on Carrera, and on 13, perhaps with the memory of the missed putt fresh on his mind, he had his first crucial hiccup, making bogey and resetting things to where they had been: a four-shot lead, except now that finishing line was in sight.

As it turned out, Fernandez de Oliveira was done making birdies. But he was also done making mistakes. Steady play, solid lag putts and drives punctuated by the single word “bueno” defined the rest of his round. Just like last year, he finished with six straight pars, but unlike that finish, this one was just what he needed.

“I’m still in shock,” he said afterward. “I think I played really good all four days, and yesterday’s round gave me comfort. There were a lot of things going through my head today, it was a real long round of golf, but I’m so thankful for everything that I got through this week, and calling myself the champion, I feel very proud.”

The only drama at the end, in fact, came when Fernandez de Oliveira routinely shot ahead of turn, and even left the group on the green on two holes to walk to the next tee before his playing partners had finished. On the 17th hole, he had teed up his ball while Carrera and third-place finisher Vicente Marzilio were still putting on the 16th green. He didn’t hit and was forced to pocket the ball when Carrera came to the tee and had honours. Afterward, he confirmed that it was an intentional act to try to force the pace of play.

“I was just doing that to speed up a little bit our threesome,” he explained. “I knew that they were a little slower than me, Vicente and Luis, so we were behind all day long, so we needed to speed up. I just tried not to rush myself when I was doing that, so that’s why when I was getting to the ball, I tried to get a sip of water or just to stay within my rhythm, while going faster.”

Carrera needed to birdie 17, but left himself more than 30 feet, and if that didn’t clinch the title, his tee shot into the water on 18 finally sealed it. Fernandez de Oliveira hit yet another drive into the fairway, the tension left his shoulders and his eventual birdie putt came an inch from dropping. When he tapped in, he could at last enjoy the spoils of victory.

“I think after the driver on 18, my mind was all over the place,” he said. “I was playing some holes at the Masters already. I just tried to breathe and stay calm. I still had three shots to go, so I finally got it done. I’m really happy for that.”

After his fellow Argentine players doused him with water on the 18th green, the fifth-year Arkansas senior signed his scorecard and emerged from the building to be mobbed again, all of them singing “Muchachos,” the anthem that became widespread last month when Argentina won the World Cup. It includes these apt lyrics:

“I can’t explain it to you, because you wouldn’t understand

how many years I cried for the finals that we lost

but that’s all over”

And while Fernandez de Oliveira’s victory may not resonate quite as much as La Albiceleste, it’s another top honour for one of the great golf powers of the southern hemisphere, and a deserved triumph for a player whose resilience was on full display in Puerto Rico, and who, for his efforts, has earned a summer bounty that is the dream of young golfers in any country.

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—Mike Whan, CEO, USGA

“I know I’ve had many discussions over the years with my friend Sidney Wolf about the desire, and just a burning desire to have this championship. So we knew when we came here it was going to be successful.”

—Fred Ridley, Chairman, Augusta National

• • •

Reversing a common story of the Puerto Rican diaspora, Sidney Wolf’s family moved from New York to Puerto Rico in the early 1960s, when he was just two years old. His father was in manufacturing, and his mother stayed at home, but that would change for both in time. Sensing an opportunity, his father pivoted to real estate, and when he passed away in 1971, his wife inherited the business (and is still alive today, at age 98). Wolf never played golf growing up, which wasn’t a surprise. Although sophisticated courses were beginning to pop up on the island, they weren’t far out of the era when most golf was centred around US military bases, with sand greens due to the absence of heat-resistant grass strains and, for some reason, extra-large holes. He played the national sport, baseball, instead, and even played a semester at the University of Maryland before deciding that he’d rather own a team than play on one, at which point he focused on his studies.

That ambition won’t surprise those who know Wolf, an entrepreneur now in his mid-sixties who credits his “passion” as the engine of everything that was to come — his involvement with Puerto Rican golf over the decades that led to his current role as president of the Puerto Rico Golf Association, a position he’s held almost without pause since 1995. (He tried to stop twice, but both times they called him back within six months.)

The arrival of this week’s Latin America Amateur Championship to Grand Reserve Golf Club in Rio Grande, a half-hour’s drive from PRGA headquarters in the nation’s capital of San Juan, represents a kind of culmination for Wolf’s career, to the point that he starts to feel sad at times, wondering if this is the end.

“There’s nothing more to do,” he said.

You get the sense, though, that for a personality as singular as Wolf, something will come up. Thus far in his career, it always has, and it may even be in the genes. As part of his real estate business, Wolf’s father worked in recreational development. According to Wolf, he built the first putt-putt course, bowling alley and amusement park on the island. It’s perhaps only natural, then, that Wolf took this work further. Upon returning from college, a few friends encouraged him to play golf, and he started to learn on the course attached to the San Juan army base. After six months he gathered the courage to try a “real” course, and before long he was starting to become immersed in the island’s fledgling golf community. He played in a tournament called the Wheeler Dealer, a charity event involving prominent members of the Puerto Rican and mainland US financial communities, and when he complained about how it was run, he managed to talk himself into an organisational role.

He knew little about marketing, and not much about golf, but when it came to raising money, he was a natural talent. By the 1980s, he was asked to be on the marketing committee for the Mazda Champions event, which brought together LPGA and Senior PGA Tour players for an event at TPC Dorado Beach. He was running the Wheeler Dealer in the meantime, along with the family business, and he even started to dabble in golf equipment distribution through a deal with the now-defunct company Belding Sports — a side hustle that became his company Sports Group, which now runs distribution across the Caribbean for the top equipment and apparel lines in golf, including Acushnet and Ping.

Wolf started running more and more tournaments, many of them through Hyatt, the corporate host of this week’s LAAC, and became a member of Lake Nona in Florida. There, he watched the World Cup of Golf in 1993, which was set to come to Puerto Rico the following year. He joined the PRGA board in 1994, became the manager of the national team, worked on the World Cup in 1994 and the senior match play event, and was elected president of the PRGA for the first time in 1995.

Sidney Wolf (center) is joined by Rafael Rovira and Carlos Suarez after Grand Reserve Golf Club was named site of the 2023 Latin America Amateur Championship. Enrique Berardi/LAAC

When Judy Bell rose to become USGA president, she became a “saviour” for Puerto Rican golf, outfitting the PRGA with the technology and equipment needed to take its national programme to the next level. That allowed him to start running professional events, like a Tour de Las Americas event, and after trying and failing for several years in his capacity as the president of the Caribbean Golf Association, he landed the World Amateur Team Championship for Puerto Rico in 2004. He also started the Americas Golf Association, a tour that ran from Puerto Rico to Canada, and then decided to become even more ambitious by seeking a Nationwide Tour event (the Korn Ferry Tour, today).

The PGA Tour told him he needed funding, so he went to the government, the bank, and everywhere else he could, and in what had become a common theme for Wolf, he got the job done.

“I look you in the eye, and you can’t say no,” he told me, only half-joking.

The PGA Tour came back and told him to forget the Nationwide Tour—they wanted him to run a PGA Tour event. Thus, in 2008, the Puerto Rico Open came to Rio Grande after a wholesale property upgrade to prepare for the event.

“Any event that comes to Puerto Rico is because of what I’ve been able to do,” Wolf said, and while that sentiment isn’t dripping with modesty, and he corrected himself to say that there were a few that didn’t quite meet that criteria, he’s not far off from the truth. And everything he’s done for golf, he’s done as a volunteer, including as president of the PRGA.

The number of members of the Puerto Rico Golf Association has increased 300 percent since Sidney Wolf took over as president in 1995, thanks in part to initiatives like Golf Para Todos (“golf for all”).

As his involvement grew with the USGA and R&A, he became intricately involved in the inception of the Latin America Amateur in 2015. He doesn’t take credit for the idea, but he did retell the story of meeting with Ron Cross, who was with Augusta National then and now works with LIV Golf, and suggesting that the success of the Asia-Pacific Amateur could translate well to Latin America. Wolf put together a document for Cross with facts and figures about golf in his part of the world and was integral in the LAAC’s formation. The idea of Puerto Rico hosting the event was a fait accompli, and Wolf thinks it would have happened in 2018 if not for the devastation wrought by Hurricane Maria.

That disaster, strangely, strengthened his relationship with the USGA. The PRGA building was destroyed, and financial relief from the USGA was key in rebuilding his organisation — and, in turn, restoring golf across Puerto Rico. By 2021, the PRGA had become the 59th Allied Golf Association of the USGA, and the first outside the 50 United States.

Now, Wolf has brought the LAAC to his home shores, and he’s eager to talk about all nine Puerto Rican golfers in the field — the largest contingent of any country or territory in this year’s tournament. It’s a signifier of the game’s growth in Puerto Rico, where 19 courses host the roughly 12,000 golfers on the island, including 5,400 members of the PRGA — a number that has increased by about 300 per cent since Wolf took over, thanks in part to initiatives like Golf Para Todos (“golf for all”) started in 1998.

And if his love for his island and its golf shines through, the players in this year’s LAAC reflect that affection right back. Gustavo Rangel, a 19-year-old from Guaynabo, mentioned the work Wolf has done in building driving ranges and working to create academies on the island. He said that Wolf’s support in finding spots in big tournaments helped him become a more confident player, which resulted in a scholarship at Loyola University in Maryland.

Ian Aldarondo Hernandez, a San Juan native who is completing his college career this season at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach echoed Rangel’s gratitude.

“Sidney Wolf is just a key part of our organisation,” Hernandez said. “Yeah, he’s the president, but his influences, his connections, his knowledge of the game and his love for the golf in Puerto Rico is just outstanding and his support me and to every junior growing up and now playing as amateurs around the world, he’s very helpful and the PRGA without him wouldn’t be the same, and we probably wouldn’t have this event here because of him and how much he loves this game and how much he supports golf in Puerto Rico.”

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Since the tournament’s inception in 2015, it has been a life-changing prospect for past winners, from stars such as Joaquin Niemann to virtual unknowns like Aaron Jarvis of the Cayman Islands, who captured last year’s title in the Dominican Republic and went on to make the cut at the Open Championship.

The 10 players below, from a variety of backgrounds and with varying pedigrees, represent only a fraction of the best stories in Puerto Rico this weekend, but each of them caught our eye for his own special reason.

1. Aaron Jarvis, Cayman Islands

Well, of course we have to include the defending champion. There has never been a back-to-back winner at the LAAC, and Jarvis would be a surprising man to get the job done for the first time, though the UNLV sophomore does possess a tireless work ethic (“He never sleeps,” said Runnin’ Rebels assistant AJ McInerney, his caddie at the Masters).
Ranked 1,669th in the World Amateur Golf Rankings, Jarvis was three strokes off the lead before the final round last year and survived a bogey and double-bogey just before the turn to stage his impressive comeback victory. He was the first Caribbean champion in LAAC history, and once again he’s playing a Caribbean course with a chance to shock the Latin American world.

2. Fred Biondi, Brazil

Biondi is the highest ranked amateur in the field, at No. 18, and the University of Florida senior was one stroke away from winning last year’s title, turning a potential eagle opportunity on the 18th into a disappointing par that kept him out of a playoff with Jarvis.
He went on to win twice in the spring for the Gators, collected First Team All-America honours, and finished T-20 at the NCAA individual championship. Biondi is the star here, and probably the golfer most likely to win the tournament, but to become Brazil’s first LAAC champ, he’ll have to overcome the nerves that caught him at the tail end of last year’s attempt.
“My first time in front of a bunch of people and cameras,” he said then. “It was tough.”
Since then, though, Biondi has been on a torrid pace — along with his two college wins, he reached the round of 32 in the US Amateur, played at the US Open in Brookline, and has started his autumn season with four top-20 finishes.
With an improved short game, he’s ready to shine in Puerto Rico, and maybe even become the most famous athlete in his family … eclipsing his brother Leonardo, aka “Kyno,” a professional E-Sports player who lives in Las Vegas.

3. Mateo Fernandez de Oliveira, Argentina

Fernandez de Oliveria is the only other top-100 world amateur in the field (No. 34), and coincidentally, he also found himself, like Biondi, with a putt to make a playoff last year in the Dominican Republic. He also missed.
He’s a senior at Arkansas, a South America Amateur champion, and an All-American with a ninth-place finish at last year’s NCAA championships. In fact, the Arkansas delegation is perhaps the most fearsome of any at the LAAC, with him and countrymen Segundo Oliva Pinto and Manuel Lozada, and Peru’s Julian Perico all in the field. Along with Biondi, he led the international team to a win over the Americans at the Arnold Palmer Cup.

4. Segundo Oliva Pinto, Argentina

Speaking of Arkansas Argentines, we have to throw Pinto into the mix here for the simple fact that some of the trivia on this guy is wild. First off, he lost the Latin America Amateur title by hitting the wrong ball on the 17th hole in the final. Second, he was tied with Tyler Strafaci at the US Amateur in Bandon Dunes in 2020, 18th hole, round of 16, when his caddie tested the surface of a bunker by brushing it with his hands, costing him the hole and the match (Strafaci went on to win the whole thing).
All of that is odd, but it pales into comparison to some details from his personal life. He broke his elbow snowboarding as a kid and now has a metal plate and six screws holding it together. Half of his index finger on his right hand is missing because he blew it up with fireworks at age 10. We can only hope Pinto is in contention on Sunday, because chances are, things are going to get chaotic.

5. Jose Islas, Mexico

This is our “hot hand” pick — Islas finished third at last week’s South America Amateur. He led by three shots heading into the final round before making three doubles on the back nine to lose the title by two shots. Despite those difficulties, he was one of the best players on the course, and he made the final 16 of the US Amateur in 2021.

6. Alvaro Ortiz, Costa Rica

As you’ll see, most of the players in the LAAC are on the younger side, but that doesn’t mean there are no old-timers in the field. Ortiz is 54, has played in every instalment of the LAAC, and almost won the thing in 2017, when he finished one shot out of a playoff.
To make matters even more confusing, a player named Alvaro Ortiz did win the LAAC in 2019, but that was the Mexican golfer who turned pro soon after. The elder Ortiz is a terror in Costa Rica, winning 29 times as an amateur since 1984 in his home country, and that’s with a 10-year period off to play professionally. If he’s in the mix on Sunday, you better believe we’ll be rooting for the old guy.

7. Franco Fernandez and Ezequiel Cabrera, Paraguay

If we’re going to pay homage to the near-senior citizens, we must also tip our caps to the young blood, and these two Paraguayans are the youngest in the field, each of them 15 years old.
Fernandez is the youngest and also probably the most likely to do real damage, having just won the U-15 South America individual championship last fall, and combining with Cabrera and others to win the team title for Paraguay. Cabrera (above) has some interesting pedigree — his uncle, Carlos Franco, is a four-time PGA Tour winner.

8. Kelvin Hernandez, Puerto Rico

If you’re looking for a home island favourite, here’s your man. Hernandez, just 17, has already captured a Caribbean Junior Amateur and Amateur Championship, and prevailed at Grand Reserve Golf Club in another junior event just two months ago. He’s had success in the US, too, finishing fourth at the US Kids Teen World Championship at Pinehurst and 17th at the Junior Players Championship at Sawgrass.
He’s 389th in the amateur rankings, and while that doesn’t quite make him one of the favourites, he’s also not a real long shot. Hernandez also has a cool Chi Chi Rodriguez story: He met the Puerto Rican legend when he was 10 years old. Rodriguez asked to look at his hands, and when he saw that Hernandez had no calluses, he told him he wasn’t practising enough.
Considering his familiarity with the area, Hernandez is our favourite underdog.

9. Juan Camilo Malagon, Colombia

This 29-year-old construction company co-founder and CCO is included here for one reason — the man plays right-handed outside 100 yards, but left-handed inside 100 yards. Apparently, this is a technique he adopted to improve his short game on the advice of a friend, and since he’s 376th in the amateur rankings, it must work. Still, we have to say … what???

10. Joseph Sibilly Jr, US Virgin Islands

This story was wild last year and remains so. Sibilly lives on St Thomas, where the only golf course was destroyed by Hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017, and now, to play golf he has to fly to St Croix — or take a three-hour ferry through typically rough waters — to play at all. He made the trip 20 times this past year, and while he has almost no chance to win (or to make the cut … his best round last year was a 93), the sheer long odds of him even playing in the event make for a fascinating story.
When he’s not playing golf, which is almost always, Sibilly is a painter and a builder, and represents the USVI in beach volleyball.

The post The 10 most interesting players to watch at the Latin America Amateur Championship appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Ryan Herrington
He didn’t need a birdie on the 18th hole Sunday at Mexico’s Mayakoba Resort. Abel Gallegos was already three strokes ahead, victory at the Latin America Amateur Championship assured. But when the 6-foot-3 17-year-old, who could be mistaken for a football player rather than a golfer, rolled in the five-footer for a closing four-under 67, his friends and family charging the green afterwards and dousing him with water in celebration, it provided a signature moment for a rising talent—and for his home country.

Since the LAAC’s inception in 2015, no golfer from Argentina had won the title, a surprising result considering the country’s history in the game and the fact that more than half the courses in South America can be found there. Each subsequent year that the Argentineans returned from the event empty-handed, questions would surface as to why.

Gallegos put an end to all that with a four-under 280 performance for the week at El Cameleon Golf Club, beating local favourite Aaron Terrazas of Mexico by four and 54-hole leader Jose Vega of Colombia by five. On a day where the howling winds off the Yucatan coast finally subsided, Gallegos was able to use his raw power—his swing speed has been measured at close to 130 miles per hour—and athleticism to tie for the low round.

In turn, he secured the champion’s biggest spoils—an invitation to the Masters in April and the Open Championship in July.

“It’s incredible,” said Gallegos, who became the second-youngest golfer to win the event. “I’m in like a dream.”

¡Abel Gallegos (Argentina) es el campeón del Latin America Amateur Championship 2020!

Abel Gallegos of Argentina is the 2020 Latin America Amateur Champion! pic.twitter.com/wybuxhiV7W

— LAAC (@LAAC_Golf) January 19, 2020

Gallegos’ victory was a testament to his composed play over the final 18 holes on Sunday—five birdies offset by one lone bogey. Still, it was made possible by his last two holes on Saturday. Hoping to finish his third round on a positive note while trailing Vega by five strokes, Gallegos made birdies on the 17th and 18th holes. Combined with a bogey on 18 from Vega, Gallegos was suddenly jutted two strokes back and with a much more realistic chance to win.

“My goal was to have a chance on Sunday,” Gallegos said after the third round. “I think I fulfilled that, and now just to trust myself.”

That didn’t keep him from having a restless night’s sleep. Gallegos said he woke up several times contemplating what was at stake on Sunday. A wild drive off the first tee hinted at the pressure he was feeling, but he managed to salvage par and calm himself. Over the next six holes, he made three birdies to take the lead at three-under for the tournament for the first time.

While Gallegos looked to be in good form, the same could not be said for Vega. A shaky back nine on Saturday for the 26-year-old TrackMan sales rep carried over to a first-hole bogey on Sunday. Vega turned in one over, but couldn’t put himself in position to make birdies and keep up with Gallegos, who stretched his lead to three strokes with a birdie on the 11th hole.

At 13, Vega finally did make another birdie to cut the deficit to two, but a wayward tee shot on the 14th hole into mango trees resulted in a double-bogey 6 that effectively ended his hopes of winning the title. He’d finish with a three-over 74.

Gallegos bogeyed the par-4 14th to fall back to three under, giving Terrazas hope as he made birdies on the 13th, 15th and 16th holes to get within three and jump Vera on the leader board. But it was too little, too late, Terrazas finishing with a 67.

Gallegos holds the trophy after becoming the first player from Argentina to win the LAAC.(Enrique Berardi/LAAC)

This was the first time Gallegos had competed in the LAAC, making him the first rookie to win the title since the inaugural playing in 2015. Sitting 460th in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, Gallegos had won the Argentinian junior title in 2019, but hadn’t played much outside of his home country. In the last year, he finished tied for sixth at last week’s Junior Orange Bowl in Florida and T-48 at the AJGA’s Junior Players at TPC Sawgrass.

His game, honed on a nine-hole course, Las Mulitas, in his home town of Veinticinco De Mayo, could perhaps use some seasoning that might come from playing college golf in the United States, but Gallegos has already said that’s not for him. His intent is to turn professional at some point (“when I’m ready mentally”) but not before the end of the summer in order to take advantage of the perks for winning the LAAC.

After the round, one of the Argentina’s most famous golfers, two-time major winner Angel Cabrera, sent a message to Gallegos offered his congratulations and added, “I will be waiting for you at the Masters so you can enjoy that great tournament.”

“It’s an incredible moment,” Gallegos said. “I dedicate the win for all of Argentina.”

Indeed, his win will likely provide a jolt to the rest of Argentina’s top amateurs, as will seeing him become only the third amateur from the country to compete at the Masters. And that was the intent all along from the tournament’s founding partners, the Masters, the USGA and the R&A, that the Latin America Amateur Championship provide inspiration to the next generation of golfers in the region. With each replay of Gallegos’ closing birdie—the signature moment of the 2020 LAAC, the message will be delivered once more.

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