Three major championship invitations are on the line.
The 2024 Latin America Amateur Championship is set to get underway Thursday in Panama City, Panama.
The event was created in 2014 as a joint initiative between Augusta National Golf Club (host of the Masters), the U.S. Golf Association (U.S. Open) and The R&A (Open Championship). Notable alumni include Fred Biondi, Nico Echavarria, Sebastian Munoz, Joaquin Niemann, Alvaro Ortiz, Raul Pereda, Mito Pereira and Alejandro Tosti.
The championship returns for the second time to Panama, which hosted the third edition in 2017 at Club de Golf de Panama.
Here’s everything you need to know for the 2024 Latin America Amateur Championship, including notables in the field and TV information.
Fernandez de Oliveira is the second Argentinian to win the Latin America Amateur.
Mateo Fernandez de Oliveira has knocked on the door of winning the Latin America Amateur Championship before, only to be turned away.
Just last year in Puerto Rico, he faced a pivotal par putt on the final hole which would have gotten him into a playoff for the LAAC title with eventual champion Aaron Jarvis. The putt didn’t drop, leaving the Argentinian a year to stew about what could have been.
Fast forward a year later to the Grand Reserve Golf Club in Puerto Rico, where Fernandez de Oliveira took a four-shot lead into the final round following a brilliant 9-under 63 on Saturday. Taking matters into his own hands, he closed with a 5-under 67 to win the championship that has eluded him in five previous tries.
Fernandez de Oliveira finished the tournament with a record score of 23-under par, which was four shots clear of his closest pursuer, Luis Carrera of Mexico (-19)
The victory earns the 22-year-old invitations to the upcoming Masters in April along with the 151st Open Championship at Royal Liverpool in July. He also earns a spot in the U.S. Open, which will be held at Los Angeles Country Club in June.
With favorable scoring conditions all week at the Grand Reserve, Fernandez de Oliveira knew a four-shot lead was anything but safe. He started his final round with a birdie on his opening hole and after dropping a shot on the third, bounced right back with a birdie on four to get back to 19-under.
He preceded to play his final 14 holes at 4-under to hold off Carrera, who also shot a final round 67.
“I’m still very shocked. I think my life has changed,” said Fernandez de Oliveira. “I’m looking forward to a great year. I’m going to take advantage of the three opportunities that I’ve been given for winning this event. So I’m very happy and I just want to enjoy every second of it.”
Fernandez de Oliveira’s victory comes exactly a year after he won the South American Amateur in Quito, Ecuador.
Vicente Marzilio of Argentina carded a final round 68 to finish alone in third place at 17 under while Jose Islas of Mexico (15 under) and Argentina’s Manuel Lozado (14 under) rounded out the top five.
On a day where 26 players turned in scores under par, Brazilian Fred Biondi carded the lowest round of the day with a 65 to climb into seventh place at 12-under 276.
Defending champion Jarvis of the Cayman Islands and UNLV tied for 17th at 4-under 284.
The 2024 Latin America Amateur Championship will be played at Santa Maria Golf Club in Panama City, Panama, Jan. 18-21.
Fernandez de Oliveira’s 18-under total is a 54-hole LAAC record.
It’s safe to say Mateo Fernandez de Oliveira doesn’t want to leave any doubt.
Last year, the senior at Arkansas finished runner-up at the Latin America Amateur Championship. He barely missed out on an invitation to two majors, including the Masters.
This year, the Argentinian has taken command with 18 holes to play. Fernandez de Oliveira went low on moving day, sparked by a stretch of five birdies in as many holes on the back nine to shoot 9-under 63 and take a four-shot advantage to Sunday’s final round at Grand Reserve Golf Club in Puerto Rico. He sits at 18 under for the tournament, leading second-round leader Luis Carrera, who hails from Mexico and is a fifth-year senior at UCF.
Fernandez de Oliveira’s 18-under total is a 54-hole LAAC record. Additionally, his 9-under mark in the third round ties the tournament record set by Joaquin Niemann.
Fellow Razorback teammate Julian Perico is tied for third at 13 under. Perico fired a 5-under 67 during the third round. He’s tied with Vicente Marzillo, who shot 6 under on Saturday.
Fernandez de Oliveira had the best round of the day by two shots, but the highlight came when he birdied Nos. 11-15 to pull into the lead. He finished on a high note, too, birdieing the par-4 18th to cap his bogey-free round.
¡Qué día para @MateofdeoMateo! 😮💨 A (-17) el jugador de Argentina.
— Latin America Amateur Championship (@LAAC_Golf) January 14, 2023
The winner will receive numerous exemptions, including to the 2023 Masters, the Open Championship and the U.S. Open for the first time. In addition, they will also be fully exempt into the 128th Amateur Championship, the U.S. Amateur Championship and any other USGA amateur championship for which he is eligible.
The runner(s)-up is exempt into the final stages of qualifying for the U.S. Open and Open Championship.
The LAAC has been dominated by Chile, as three players from there have won half of the events.
The Latin America Amateur Championship will return on January 20, 2022 after being canceled in 2021 due to COVID-19.
The 72-hole event, formed in 2015 by Augusta National, the USGA, and the Royal and Ancient Golf Club, was conceived in order to encourage the growth of amateur golf in Latin America. The opportunities for the winner are the stuff of dreams: an invite to the Masters, The Open Championship, and both the U.S. and British Amateur Championships.
The LAAC has been dominated by Chile, as three players from the South American country have won half of the events (Matias Domínguez, 2015; Toto Gana, 2017; Joaquín Niemann, 2018). Mexico’s Alvaro Ortiz, Costa Rica’s Paul Chaplet, and Argentina’s Abel Gallegos are the other three winners.
Heading into this year, Mateo Fernandez de Oliveira, who hails from Argentina and plays his college golf at Arkansas, is the highest-ranked amateur player; he is currently 43rd in the world.
The 25 countries that have yet to claim a winner have some potential challengers this year. Panamanian Omar Tejeira Jaen (62nd), Brazilian Andrey Borges Xavier (80th) and Peruvian Julián Pericó (100th) are clear contenders to earn a victory.
The range of age in the field is 39 years. The youngest player is Ezequiel Cabrera a 14-year-old Paraguayan while the oldest is 53-year-old Costa Rican veteran Álvaro Ortiz.
Whoever wins the 2022 edition will do it on a Pete Dye course that he believed to be his favorite among his world-class designs.
Teeth of the Dog, located on the Casa de Campos resort in the Dominican Republic, has seven holes that run along the edge of the ocean. Dye credits “the man upstairs” for the construction of those scenic holes; the other eleven holes, which sit farther from the cliffs, required some of Pete and Alice Dye’s magic touch.
In true Dye fashion, the bold landscape was made bolder through extremely laborious work. Built in the 1960s, the land needed serious massaging, but bringing the proper equipment over to the Dominican Republic was far too expensive. The majority of the land was infertile, spotted with coral and limestone. The course earned its name when the workers compared the limestone to the “diente de perro” or Teeth of the Dog.
Hundreds of laborers used hammers to pound away the hard material in order to replace it with soil. But where would the soil come from? Dye and his team used oxen-pulled wagons to transport soil to the site from a mile down the road. These were not large wagons, one square yard of soil fit in each wagon; they were typically used to move sugarcane. Continuing the trend of resourcefulness, Dye mixed a sugarcane byproduct – cachaza – with sand and soil to construct his topsoil.
As they began routing the course, large rocks and boulders impeded the playing corridors. With painstaking effort, the laborers moved the heavy rocks to the edges of the fairway. Once all the rocks were moved, they created a stone wall that actually covered two miles of terrain.
It’s no wonder that Tom Doak said Teeth of the Dog was built “with a degree of craftsmanship seldom seen today.” The Dye’s stayed on the property while Teeth of the Dog was built, visiting the site almost daily. The laborers, who spent hours building calluses as they pounded limestone and coral, demonstrated their craftsmanship as they delicately built greens and bunkers using hand rakes and shovels.
The No. 5 hole at Casa de Campo’s Teeth of the Dog in the Dominican Republic (Courtesy of Casa de Campo)
The breakdown of inland and water holes at Teeth of the Dog is the same as Pebble Beach. Both have 11 inland holes and seven holes on the water. For Tom Doak, there is no comparison between Pebble’s inland holes and those at Teeth of the Dog. In The Confidential Guide to Golf Courses” Doak wrote, “The starting holes of Teeth of the Dog are especially good, letting golfers stretch their muscles before they reach the par-5 3rd.”
The holes along the water are what separate Teeth of the Dog and earn its reputation as the best Caribbean course and a top-tier course in the world. Holes 5-8 and then 14-17 both run along the Caletón de la Majagua.
Photographer Brain Morgan famously said that Teeth of the Dog has seven holes in the water. Anyone who has seen the fifth hole knows what Morgan is talking about; the tee box and green both jut out into the ocean. According to Doak, both sets of water holes would be the “best stretch of holes on 99 percent of golf courses.”
Whoever wins the 2022 LAAC will require the skill to hit all the necessary shots and avoid the manmade distractions that Pete and Alice Dye created along with Mother Nature’s distractions just off the coast of the Dominican Republic.
You can see the water early. It’s the Caribbean Sea, blue and perfect, and of course there’s no missing it. Visitors likely saw plenty of it on the flight to this island nation.
Before a player ever sets off the first tee of Teeth of the Dog, the sea is seemingly right there in view from the main Casa de Campo clubhouse, down and across the ninth and 18th holes. There are glimpses of blue on the early holes. It’s oh-so-close on the third and fourth holes, just a skosh more than a hundred yards away, providing a taste of salt on the air to make you think you know what it means to play golf alongside the ocean.
But it’s not until you step onto the fifth tee box that you experience the sensory overload of playing golf directly alongside the sea. Salt spray. Trade winds. Palm trees. A tiny green perched above the waves – take one too many steps backward while reading a putt, and you might make a splash. It’s almost too much for the golf-travel obsessed.
No. 5 at Casa de Campo’s Teeth of the Dog in the Dominican Republic (Gabe Gudgel/Golfweek)
Right there on that tee box is where many golfers learn what it means to play tight to the ocean. Not playing near the water with a restricted view through some condo towers or mansions, not on a cliff high above the waves, not on the inland side of a beach dune with the wet stuff a full wedge away. Instead, this fifth tee shot is an incredible introduction to swinging so close to the sea that you might get your socks wet – a real possibility if your approach shot falls short and you go for a bold recovery from the rock-strewn beach.
“I remember the first time I played Teeth of the Dog and I pulled up to No. 5,” said Robert Birtel, director of golf operations at the sprawling Dominican resort, “and I was like ‘Whoa, what’s going on here?’ ”
What’s going on is up to 176 yards of bravado, beauty and visual intimidation. It’s the late Pete Dye at his finest – an unforgettable golf shot set in a postcard.
And it’s just the beginning. No. 5 is only the first of seven holes on Dye’s Teeth of the Dog – so named because the sharp rocks along the shore called to mind a canine’s canines – where it’s not only possible you blast a ball into the sea, it’s frequently surprising if you don’t.
After being canceled in 2021 due to COVID-19, the Latin America Amateur returns to Dominican.
After being canceled in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Casa de Campo will host the seventh edition of the Latin American Amateur Championship from January 20-23, 2022. This will be the third time the world-renowned Teeth of the Dog course in La Romana will be the venue. This Pete Dye design annually ranks as one of the best courses in Latin America.
With a goal of furthering the game of golf in South America, Central America, Mexico, and the Caribbean, the Masters Tournament, the R&A, and USGA founded the event. Past winners include Chile’s Joaquin Niemann, and Colombia’s Sebastian Munoz.
The winner will receive an invitational to the 2022 Masters Tournament, and an exemption into the Open at St. Andrews. On top of that, he will be fully exempted into the Amateur Championship, U.S. Amateur Championship, and all other USGA amateur events he is eligible for.
The runner-up, on the other hand, will be exempt into final qualifying stages for the Open and U.S. Open.
“We are incredibly excited to welcome the region’s top amateurs back to Casa de Campo, as the Latin America Amateur Championship returns to form,” said Andres Pichardo Rosenberg, president of Casa de Campo. “Teeth of the Dog is both a beautiful and challenging championship venue, and our team relishes the opportunity to continue our wonderful partnership with the Masters Tournament, The R&A and the USGA and showcase the ever-expanding talent in our region.”
Abel Gallegas becomes the first player from Argentina to win the Latin America Amateur
The Latin America Amateur Championship has provided a solid metric for golf’s growth in this particular region. An initiative that began in Argentina six years ago finally has an Argentinian winner. Abel Gallegos, a 17-year-old who learned the game on a small nine-hole course just outside Buenos Aires, calmly claimed his country’s first title in the event, securing a long list of coveted playing opportunities in the process.
Gallegos used a final-round 67 at El Camaleon Golf Club in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, to climb back from 2 down at the start of Sunday’s fourth and final round. Birdies at Nos. 3, 5 and 7 helped him step into the lead and he never relinquished it. He finished at 4 under and four ahead of runner-up Aaron Terrazas of Mexico.
He becomes the first of six LAAC winners to hail from Argentina, where Pilar Golf in Buenos Aires hosted the inaugural championship in 2015.
“It’s an incredible moment,” Gallegos said through a translator at the start of the awards ceremony at Mayakoba. “I dedicate this win to all of Argentina, they’re always backing me. And it’s just for them.”
Gallegos was a first-time participant in this year’s LAAC and was one of eight players from Argentina in the field. Five of his compatriots joined him inside the top 20.
He earns the traditional Masters invitation reserved for the winner of the LAAC and also becomes the event’s first champion to receive an invitation to the British Open. Invitations to the British Amateur and U.S. Amateur, along with a pass to U.S. Open sectional qualifying, are also on the table.
The Masters invite, however, is the one that sparkles.
“It’s incredible, I think I’m in a dream,” Gallegos said. “Right now I have to enjoy and be part of it with my family.”
Jose Vega shot a third-round 72 to hold a two-stroke lead at Latin America Amateur Championship.
Jose Vega ended Saturday’s round with three bogeys, but played the front nine on the difficult El Camaleón Golf Club well enough to maintain his lead at the Latin America Amateur Championship.
Vega, the only player in Mayakoba, Mexico under par, shot a 72 Saturday and leads Abel Gallegos by two strokes after 54 holes.
Vega began his round confidently and was even par on the front nine, but said he struggled on the back nine due to windy conditions.
“It was a fairly complicated day with the wind, and then on the back nine, just mental struggle from 11 to 15,” Vega said. “I wasn’t hitting the ball quite well from the tee, but ended up making good up and downs and kept the ball in play on 15 through 18 and ended up shooting 1-over par, which isn’t too bad for the conditions of the round.”
Vega sat T-5 after shooting an opening-round 74, but held the lead after the second round after carding a 65 on Friday.
First-round leader Ivan Camilo Ramirez sits T-3 with Gabriel Morgan Birke at 3 over.
Gallegos, who ended his third round with back-to-back birdies, looks forward to the challenge El Camaleón poses for a final 18 holes on Sunday as well as the opportunity to overtake Vega and finish with the win.
“I think having those birdies (on 17 and 18) at the end was very good because… it’s a very difficult stretch, and I think that tomorrow, the last nine holes are going to be key,” Gallegos said. “It’s going to be a very difficult stretch and even if you’re three or four strokes behind the leader, you can still win this tournament because of the difficulty that those nine holes have.”
Vega and Gallegos tee off their final rounds from the first tee Sunday at 9:03 a.m. ET along with Ivan Camilo Ramirez.
Currently a regional director of sales for Trackman, Jose Vega is making the most of his week at Mayakoba’s El Camaelón Golf Club in Mexico.
Jose Vega of Colombia leads by three shots after 36 holes at the 2020 Latin America Amateur Championship.
Vegas shot a bogey-free 65 on a windy Friday. His round started with a birdie on the first hole and a hole-out eagle on the third at Mayakoba’s El Camaelón Golf Club in Mexico.
Vega, 26, is 3 under, the only golfer under par. Lukas Roessler of Chile is currently second at even par, while Chile’s Gabriel Morgan Birke and Argentina’s Abel Gallegos are tied for third, four strokes back.
Vega shot an opening-round 74 but his 65 gives him the second-best second-round score in event history.
Joaquin Niemann shot a 64 in the second round two years ago.
“I think it was one of the best rounds I’ve ever played,” Vega said. “And playing on a stage like this, it’s even better.”
He played his college golf at Bellevue University in Nebraska and is currently a regional director of sales for Trackman, the popular golf technology company. He calls golf more of a hobby these days but feels good about holding the lead through the weekend.
“Absolutely,” he said. “My mind and my way of living is just a competitive mindset. … I’m not here to be second. I’m not here to be third. I’m here to win.”
There are 52 players from 20 countries vying for a shot at the Masters and the Open Championship. The winner of the LAAC gains entry to both.
At 15, Lukas Roessler of Chile is one of the youngest players in the field this week with a spot in the Masters up for grabs.
Ivan Camilo Ramirez isn’t getting too far ahead of himself after opening with a two-shot lead Thursday at the Latin America Amateur Championship with a spot in the Masters and the British Open on the line.
Ramirez, a 22-year-old from Colombia, found himself at 2 over after three holes in windy conditions, but he was able to stay calm and finished with five birdies in his round of 3-under 68 at Mayakoba’s El Camaleón Golf Club.
“It wasn’t the start that I wanted, but at end of the day, it’s 18 holes today, 18 tomorrow, 18 on Saturday and 18 on Sunday,” said Ramirez, who played at Texas Tech and finished fourth individually at the 2018 NCAA championships. “It’s just a lot of holes that you have to stay calm and stay patient.”
Chileans Lukas Roessler and Gabriel Morgan Birke are tied for second at 1 under. At 15, Roessler is one of the youngest players in the field this week. His older brother, Toto Gana, won the 2017 LAAC at Club de Golf in Panama. Gana shot a 77 Thursday.
“It was an incredible moment when he won, and we realized if you practiced a lot, you could go far,” Roessler said. “He wasn’t that good at the beginning, but then he practiced a lot and he became a good player then, so that gave us motivation to keep on practicing.”
Roessler shares the same coach, Alvaro Miguel, as his brother and Joaquin Niemann, the 2018 LAAC winner. Niemann became the first Chilean player to win on the PGA Tour at the 2019 Greenbrier tournament. The 21-year-old tied for fifth at the Sentry Tournament of Champions to start the year.
Ramirez has played in all six previous editions of the LAAC. Last year he tied for ninth at the LAAC played at Teeth of the Dog in the Dominican Republic after missing the cut in 2018.
“I feel like a few of the last years that I haven’t played well, I’ve put too much pressure on myself. So, this week, I just want to enjoy it,” Ramirez said. “It’s a great chance to play in the Masters and The Open, but I think the prizes have to stay out of my mind. I just need to play golf. I need to play 54 more holes and follow the plan that I have. “
