In 2023, 100 years after legendary Argentine golfer Roberto De Vicenzo was born, then 22-year-old countryman Mateo Fernández de Oliveira won the Latin America Amateur Championship (LAAC), and competed in The Masters Tournament, the U.S. Open and The Open Championship at Royal Liverpool, where De Vicenzo was the only Argentine to claim the Claret Jug more than five decades earlier.
“Winning a tournament like the Latin America Amateur that opens so many doors will always be very special. I had the chance to play at Royal Liverpool and Augusta, where De Vicenzo won in 1967 and Angel Cabrera conquered the Green Jacket in 2009 [respectively],” said Fernández de Oliveira about the invitations for the winner of the LAAC.
The champion of the 2025 Latin America Amateur at Pilar Golf Club outside Buenos Aires will receive an invitation to compete in the 2025 Masters Tournament and exemptions into The 153rd Open at Royal Portrush and the 125th U.S. Open at Oakmont, where Cabrera became the only Argentine to lift the U.S. Open Championship Trophy in 2007.
“I remember being a kid and watching Cabrera win in 2009 and lose the playoff against Adam Scott at the 2013 Masters,” recalled 21-year-old Abel Gallegos, who became the first Argentine champion of the Latin American Amateur in 2020.
Gallegos and Fernández de Oliveira are part of a notable list of Argentine golfers at the majors. A list that goes back 100 years with J.J. Cruikshank’s 17th finish at the 1925 Open Championship in Prestwick and Jose Jurado’s runner-up to Tommy Armour in 1931 at Carnoustie. The next year, Jurado finished sixth at the 1932 U.S. Open at Fresh Meadow Country Club in New York.
The young players representing Argentina in the 2025 Latin America Amateur recognize that history and revere their golf legends. “I was lucky to meet De Vicenzo,” said 20-year-old Ramiro Acevedo, who is making his second start at the LAAC.
“One of my best memories is when he told me ‘If you want to win many tournaments on Sunday, you have to go out and beat them on the course’,” added Acevedo, a member of Ranelagh Golf Club, the home course of De Vicenzo, who passed away in 2017.
“My favorite golfer is Masters and U.S. Champion ‘Pato’ Cabrera,” said 25-year-old Segundo Oliva Pinto, born in Cordoba like Cabrera, who remembers shooting 29 on the front nine the first time he played with Angel.
Oliva Pinto has collected four top-15 finishes in his four LAACs, one more than his teammate Vicente Marzilio, who finished third in 2023 and runner-up in 2022. In the nine previous editions, Argentine players have finished 14 times in the top-10, with three runners-up (Marzilio and Fernández de Oliveira in 2022 and Alejandro Tosti in 2015), and two champions, Fernández de Oliveira in 2023 and Gallegos in 2020.
“Abel showed us that Argentines can win this tournament with ease. We got a lot of motivation and confidence by seeing how good he was and comparing him to ourselves,” said Marzilio of the first Argentine champion of the Latin America Amateur.
