The Costa Rican Álvaro Ortiz (55 years old), the Panamanian Miguel Ordóñez (40) and the Bermudian Jarryd Dillas (38) can boast this week of being the only ones who are going to compete in all nine editions of the Latin America Amateur Championship (LAAC), a tournament for amateur golfers from Central America and South America that has been gaining momentum and prestige in recent years. In fact, the coveted prize for the winner contains no less than three very valuable chests, as the victor on Sunday at the Santa María Golf Club in Panama will not only compete in the Masters, as was the case before, but will also get to participate in the US Open and the Open (as the champion of last year, the Argentine Mateo Fernández de Oliveira, already enjoyed). An impressive three-for-one that boosts the motivation of the 108 players who will tee off from the 1st and 10th tomorrow from 7.00 local time (13.00 in the Iberian Peninsula).
For almost a decade, Ortiz has witnessed the struggles and triumphs of the region’s young amateurs, such as the victory of Paul Chaplet, who was then 16 years old, at Casa de Campo (Dominican Republic), and the participation of the young Costa Rican in the 2016 Masters. “I remember playing alongside the Colombian Nicolás Echavarría (champion of the Puerto Rico Open 2023 of the PGA Tour) in the first LAAC in Argentina (2015)”, Ortiz points out, “and then we were together again in the penultimate group on Sunday in Panama in 2017”, emphasizes the veteran golfer about his third participation, in which he obtained his best result by finishing fourth one stroke off the playoff.
In that edition, they shared the game with the Chilean Joaco Niemann (winner of the LAAC 2018 in Chile), the Mexican Álvaro Ortiz (winner of the LAAC 2019 in the Dominican Republic and not to be confused with the Costa Rican mentioned earlier) and the Chilean Toto Gana, champion of that Latin America Amateur Championship of 2017 in Panama.
From last year to this one, several amateurs returning to the LAAC have reaped victories and recognitions. The Mexican José Islas (fourth in 2023) won the National Amateur Championship of his country and reached the quarterfinals of the US Amateur. His compatriot Santiago de la Fuente (runner-up in 2022 and ninth last year) was part of the international team of the Arnold Palmer Cup and was All-American with the University of Houston, while the also Mexican Omar Morales (24th in the 2020 LAAC) hit the inaugural shot of the US Open at Los Angeles Country Club. And the Paraguayan Erich Fortlage, 17 years old (12th in the 2023 LAAC) won the South American Youth Championship.
The 2022 LAAC champion, Aaron Jarvis (Cayman Islands), will compete in Santa María, along with the two runners-up that year, De la Fuente and the Argentine Vicente Marzilio. Jarvis could be the first two-time champion of the tournament. When he won he was 19 years old, roughly the average age of the eight winners: Matías Domínguez, Chaplet, Gana, Niemann, Álvaro Ortiz, Abel Gallegos, Jarvis and Fernández de Oliveira.
The competitors in Panama will have to tame the undulating greens and the high rough of the seemingly benign Santa María Golf Club course, designed by Jack Nicklaus with the capital as a backdrop. “We have been practicing the course and we have a certain advantage”, says local Raúl Carbonell, winner in March 2023 of the Isthmian Championship, the National Amateur Championship of Panama. “I have been playing at Santa María for almost a decade”, adds Omar Tejeira, the Panamanian best positioned for the 2024 LAAC. On the other hand, both Carbonell and Tejeira acknowledge that they have never experienced the setup that Santa María will have for this LAAC, with firm and fast fairways and greens, and playing as par 70 instead of 72.
Amateurs from 29 countries and territories recognized by the International Olympic Committee from all over Latin America will be represented in this event. Among them, the Mexican troop stands out: Omar Morales occupies the best position in the world ranking of the participants (74th) and Santiago de la Fuente is 89th. Morales could not finish the Copper Cup last Monday, a NCAA competition he was playing with his university, UCLA, as he had to travel to Panama for this very important event. Justin Hastings, from the Cayman Islands, is also in the top 100 (97th).
On Sunday we will know the winner who will be rewarded with an invitation to the Masters and exemptions for the US Open at Pinehurst No. 2 and the British Open at Royal Troon. To do this, he must first be among the top 50 and tied after 36 holes.
