17-Year-Old Wins LAAC To Earn Masters, Open Championship Invites
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The emergence of several Latin America Amateur contestants in the professional ranks added a little more prestigious to this year’s edition, but the real boost was the addition this week of an Open Championship exemption. That goes with the much coveted Masters invite, while the USGA still just brings a Sectional Qualifying invite.
The 2020 edition was taken by Abel Gallegos, the first Argentinian to win the event. From an unbylined story on the official website:
Gallegos, who hails from the small town of 25 de Mayo, about two hours outside of Buenos Aires, learned the game on a modest nine-hole course named Las Mulitas, or Little Mules, but will be the 14th Argentine and just the third amateur from Argentina to compete in the Masters Tournament.
Angel Cabrera, the Argentine legend who won the 2009 Masters, sent a message to Gallegos after the final round in which he offered his congratulations and added, “I will be waiting for you at the Masters so you can enjoy that great tournament.”
Gallegos smiled when told of Cabrera’s sentiment, saying, “He is a hero back home. To have him congratulate me, it is everything.”
Gallegos edged a 26-year-old Trackman salesman headed to this week’s PGA Show. Brentley Romine with the story of Jose Vega, Columbia native and former Nebraska golfer.
The highlights, narrated in Spanish…
