With just a few days to the start of the ninth Latin America Amateur Championship (LAAC) at Santa María Golf Club in Panama, it is hard to predict who could be the winner awarded with an invitation to the 2024 Masters Tournament and exemptions to the 152nd Open at Royal Troon and the 124th U.S. Open Championship at Pinehurst No. 2. It is not easy to figure out the making of a Latin America Amateur champion. We can just guess a few ingredients for 2024: position on the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR) and performance during the previous year, knowledge of the treacherous Santa María golf course, experience as a winner or a contender, and youth.
ON PAPER
Mexican Omar Morales will play his first LAAC as the highest-ranked player in the field (No. 75 in WAGR) after hitting the inaugural shot and briefly leading the 2023 U.S. Open at Los Angeles Country Club. He is part of a trio of Mexican favorites, along with Santiago de la Fuente and José Islas, a 2023 U.S. Amateur quarterfinalist.
“The week of the LAAC has a gold star on my calendar,” said Islas, who is playing his third Latin American Amateur and finished fourth in 2023 in Puerto Rico. He stands at No. 117 in WAGR, closely behind Chris Richards Jr. (No. 109) from Trinidad and Tobago and Justin Hastings (No. 102) from the Cayman Islands.
Hastings finished T-19 in 2023 in Puerto Rico and T-22 in 2022 at the Dominican Republic, where his countryman Aaron Jarvis won the LAAC as the 1,669th-ranked amateur in the world, proving the WAGR can be just a reference.
COURSE KNOWLEDGE
The 108 competitors in Panama will have to navigate the undulating greens and tall rough of the seemingly benevolent Santa María Golf Course. Local knowledge of the venue designed by Jack Nicklaus against the backdrop of Panama City's skyline could be another factor.
“We have been practicing the course and we have some advantage,” said Panamanian Raul Carbonell, winner in March 2023 of the Isthmian Championship, Panama's national amateur championship. “I have been playing Santa María for almost a decade,” added Omar Tejeira, the highest-ranked Panamanian in the 2024 LAAC field.
On the other hand, both Carbonell and Tejeira recognize they have never experienced the setup Santa Maria will have for the Latin America Amateur Championship, with “firm and fast fairways and greens, and playing par 70, instead of par 72.”
EXPERIENCE AT THE TOP
One past winner, Jarvis, will be competing in Santa Maria, along with two past runners-up, de la Fuente and Argentinian Vicente Marzilio. Both finished T-2 behind Jarvis at the 2022 Latin America Amateur Championship.
“I have paid a lot of attention to my physical shape, and I have worked a lot on distance control, short game and putting. I feel very good for this LAAC,” said Marzilio, hoping to follow the steps of the two Argentine LAAC champions, Abel Gallegos (2020) and Mateo Fernández de Oliveira (2023).
“The main focus of my preparation has been this week,” said de la Fuente, who will be playing his fourth Latin America Amateur Championship. “I have learned that you have to keep calm because everything can change in a matter of seconds,” added de la Fuente about his experience in contention at the LAAC, where he has collected two top 10s.
YOUNG BLOOD
Jarvis could be the first two-time champion of the LAAC. When he won in 2022, he was 19 years old. In fact, just under 20 is the average age of the eight winners of the Latin America Amateur Championship—Matias Dominguez (2015), Toto Gana (2017) and Joaquin Niemann (2018) from Chile, Alvaro Ortiz (2019) from Mexico, Paul Chaplet (2016) from Costa Rica, Gallegos, Jarvis, and Fernández de Oliveira.
“I had a great preparation and I have good expectations. I feel a bit more comfortable although there are always nerves because of the significance of this tournament,” said 17-year-old Paraguayan Erich Fortlage, playing his third LAAC after finishing T-12 in 2023 in Puerto Rico.
“I feel great, and my goal is to make the cut in a good position to win the tournament on the weekend,” said 18-year-old Kelvin Hernández from Puerto Rico. Hernández just qualified for the 2024 Puerto Rico Open and aspires to emulate Puerto Rican legend Chi Chi Rodriguez, who played one Open Championship, 14 Masters and 16 U.S. Opens.
