Messi’s World Cup victory in December (understandably) scored all of the headlines, and Argentina’s unimaginable run of sporting achievements acquired an addition on Sunday when Argentine Mateo Fernandez de Oliveira received the Latin America Amateur Championship to safe his place within the 2023 Masters, U.S. Open and Open Championship.
Fernandez de Oliveira, the No. 34-ranked newbie on the earth, shot a 67 within the last spherical on Sunday at Grand Preserve Golf Club in Puerto Rico to say his first ever title at this occasion. A 12 months in the past, Fernandez de Oliveira narrowly missed a playoff that might have propelled him into the 2022 Masters. This 12 months, he left little doubt, defeating Luis Carrera by 4 strokes and the remainder of the field by a minimum of six.
“I’m still very shocked. I think my life has changed,” mentioned 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, who’s ending up his senior 12 months at Arkansas, had an incredible summer time in 2022 following that shut name on the earlier Latin America Amateur Championship. He completed ninth on the NCAAs then second on the Western to Austin Greaser, who, coincidentally, performed within the 2022 Masters himself after ending second on the 2021 U.S. Amateur.
For Fernandez de Oliveira, heading to the three majors might be some extent of satisfaction not just for himself but additionally his nation, which has produced one Masters winner (Angel Cabrera) and will have produced one other. In 1968, Argentine Roberto de Vicenzo signed an incorrect scorecard that stored him from an 18-hole Monday playoff at that 12 months’s Masters.
De Vicenzo didn’t come up empty in majors, although. He really received an Open Championship on the identical course — Royal Liverpool — that this 12 months’s occasion might be performed. Fernandez de Oliveira cannot wait to recover from there after his appearances at Augusta and Los Angeles Country Club.
“Going back where Roberto [De Vicenzo] won in 1967, it’s very special. I went there in 2016, and the minute I walked into the clubhouse, they asked me where I was from and I said ‘Argentina’, and they told me, ‘okay, come with me’. They took me to the lunch room where they have portraits and everything about where when he won. I felt very proud.”
Fernandez de Oliveira utterly dominated the week in Puerto Rico. After opening 68-67, he utterly lit the golf course on hearth with a 63 on Saturday earlier than sealing the occasion with his tidy 67 on Sunday. In all, he made 25 birdies and an eagle to get to 23 below for the week.
He is definitely not the primary Argentine to win this occasion. Abel Gallegos beat Aaron Terrazas again in 2020 by 4 strokes earlier than the Masters that 12 months was postponed till November. Other Latin America Amateur Championship winners embrace Aaron Jarvis (Cayman Islands), Toto Gana (Chile) and — maybe most famously, Joaquin Niemann (Chile), who practically received the occasion twice.
Fernandez de Oliveira bumps the 2023 Masters field to 81 with his victory in Puerto Rico and can attempt to develop into the primary participant since Alvaro Ortiz did it in 2019 to make the reduce at Augusta National in April.