At 55 years of age, Alvaro Ortiz from Costa Rica is getting ready to play his last Latin America Amateur Championship. He is one of three veterans, along with 40-year-old Miguel Ordoñez from Panama, and 38-year-old Jarryd Dillas from Bermuda, who have participated in all the previous editions and will compete in the ninth LAAC at Santa Maria Golf Club in Panama. “Panama 2024 will be my last LAAC since I need to open the door to young Costa Rican golfers coming up. It has been an awesome ride that has given me a bunch of great experiences,” said Ortiz, whose treasured experiences include witnessing the victory of then 16-year-old Paul Chaplet in the Dominican Republic and the participation of the young Costa Rican in the 2016 Masters.
WITNESSING TRIUMPHS
For almost a decade, Ortiz has witnessed the struggles and triumphs of young amateurs from the region.
“I remember playing alongside Colombian Nicolas Echavarria in the first LAAC in Argentina (in 2015). And then we were together again in the second-to-last group on Sunday in Panama in 2017,” recalled Ortiz about his third participation where he obtained his best result and finished T-4 and one stroke out of a playoff.
It was the last Latin America Amateur Championship for Echavarria, winner of the PGA Tour’s Puerto Rico Open in 2023, who finished T-8 alongside Argentine Andres Gallegos and Miguel Ordoñez.
The three players in the last group behind them were Chilean Joaquin Niemann (winner of the 2018 LAAC in Chile), Mexican Alvaro Ortiz (winner of the 2019 LAAC in Dominican Republic), and Chilean Toto Gana, the winner of that 2017 Latin America Amateur Championship in Panama.
“I have very fond memories of that year. It was the last time my father watched me play golf,” said Ordoñez about his emotional and personal connection with the history of the LAAC. “My daughter was born during the week of the first edition in Argentina.”
For the self-named career amateur, participating in the LAAC is a big prize on itself. In fact, he plans to continue playing the regional annual competition “as long as the flame stays alive.” Over the last nine years, Ordoñez has seen the evolution of the Latin America Amateur Championship into “the central engine propelling the golf careers of the best amateurs in the region.”
ALUMNI ACCOMPLISHMENTS
The accomplishments of LAAC alumni just in 2023 are testament to that propelling force.
In addition to 2023 champion Mateo Fernandez de Oliveira competing in the Masters, U.S. Open and The Open, Brazil’s Fred Biondi (runner-up in 2022 and seventh in 2023 LAAC) won both individual and team NCAA Championship titles with the University of Florida before joining the pro ranks.
On the professional side, Niemann, 2018 LAAC champion, won the Australian Open. Echavarria won his first PGA Tour event in Puerto Rico. And Argentinian Alejandro Tosti (runner-up in the 2015 LAAC) and Mexican Raul Pereda (T-6 in the 2017 LAAC) obtained their PGA Tour cards for the 2024 season.
Since the last edition in Puerto Rico, several of the amateurs returning to the Latin America Amateur Championship in Panama have collected victories and recognitions.
Mexican Jose Islas (fourth in the 2023 LAAC) won the Mexican Amateur and made it to the quarterfinals of the U.S. Amateur. Fellow countrymen Santiago de la Fuente (runner-up in 2022 and T-9 in 2023) was part of the International Arnold Palmer Cup team and an All-American at the University of Houston while Omar Morales (T-24 in 2020 LAAC) hit the opening tee shot of the U.S. Open at Los Angeles Country Club. And 17-year-old Paraguayan Erich Fortlage (T-12 in the 2023 LAAC) won the South American Junior Championship.
Fortlage is one of 11 juniors who made the cut in 2023 and part of the strong contingent of 18-year-old or younger players in the 2024 Latin America Amateur Championship field. He completes a quartet of “junior veterans” comprised by 18-year-old Gabriel Palacios from Guatemala, 17-year-old Kurt Rivers from Turks and Caicos, and 16-year-old Eze Cabrera from Paraguay.
At Santa Maria Golf Club of Panama in January, Palacios, Rivers, Cabrera, and Fortlage will all be playing their third LAACs with bright futures ahead.
