Featured Players
Argentine Mateo Pulcini, the brand-new winner of the 11th Latin America Amateur Championship, in Lima Golf Club, Peru, cannot hide his emotions when he recognizes the people who have accompanied him through the years to get to this moment.
“Martina Gavier, Horacio Carbonetti, José Luis Campra and Hernán Rey have helped me a lot to get here, because I started to compete late,” said 25-year-old Pulcini, who played his first golf competition in his late teens and participated for the first time in the Latin America Amateur in 2023.
“We started working when he was 16. He had a great talent and a solid swing. He always stayed very close to his roots and his people. He is very loyal and that closeness to his family, friends, and origins has helped him a lot,” said Martina Gavier, also from the Cordoba Province in Argentina and now Director of Golf Operations at University of Arkansas, where Pulcini played the 2023-24 season.
“He has been waiting for this moment his whole life and I am so proud of him,” said University of Arkansas Coach Brad McMakin, who also coached 2023 Latin America Amateur champion, Argentine Mateo Fernández de Oliveira. “He is patient, easy going, and a big strong kid. Being able to get out of the rough during the play-off was a big advantage, you have to be strong to get that ball by the green,” added McMakin about the two play-off holes, where Pulcini prevailed against Venezuelan Virgilio Paz Valdes.
“He is a player who performs much better in hard golf courses. This week he showed that he is a great golfer who can excel in difficult conditions,” said Fernández de Oliveira, who shares country, friendship, college and the coaching of Hernán Rey with Pulcini.
“We made small changes because at the end of the day he is on his own, with the support of a very collaborative team,” said Rey, recognizing the joint work with Gavier and his coaches in Cordoba, former pro golfer Horacio Carbonetti and long-term professional caddie José Luis Campra.
“He has the same swing he had when he was 15. He comes from a great family, and I only have good things to say about him. I hope he can take great advantage of this year,” said Campra, who caddied for several years for Argentine Emiliano Grillo, with 28 majors in his career.
That same Argentine support team will be sustaining Pulcini when he competes at the three majors reserving a spot for the 2026 Latin America Amateur champion: the Masters at Augusta National Golf Club, the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club and The Open at Royal Birkdale Golf Club.
There, he will follow the steps of Argentine golf legends, Roberto De Vicenzo, winner of the 1967 Open Championship, and another player from Cordoba, Angel Cabrera, champion of the 2007 U.S. Open and the 2009 Masters.
“I played with Angel Cabrera and he was very attentive. He was very interested in my college career, my equipment,” said Pulcini about his round with Cabrera at the Argentine Abierto del Litoral in November 2025. “He was very friendly and seeing him play was impressive.” In April, Pulcini will have another chance to walk with Cabrera, this time at Augusta National during the practice rounds of the 90th Masters Tournament.
