RIO GRANDE, Puerto Rico.- “Teo” was drenched shouting “Give him champion!, “Give him champion!” and from that moment nothing was the same: Mateo Fernández de Oliveira knew that he already had the tickets for the Masters, the US Open and the British Open in his pocket, a dream come true for a young man who turns 23 this Monday. To measure what the Sanisidrense achieved in the Latin America Amateur Championship, countless professional golfers throughout history have never played in a major, even though they were members of important circuits. Many of them – coming from anywhere on the planet – surely traced a career of more than 25 years without having that privilege. Mateo, on the other hand, will be part of three big tournaments in one year and as an amateur. Amazing.
It is an individual joy but also a collective one: on the 18th green, the other seven teammates who represented Argentina at the LAAC emptied their water bottles and bathed Fernández de Oliveira, who shortly after got ready for the awards ceremony together with the priests of the organizing entities of this 72-hole competition. And after the protocol question, his colleagues dedicated a song adapted from “Muchachos” to him, to continue with the festivities of soccer and World Cup.
The player from the University of Arkansas revalidated his candidate poster, which never weighed on him and even added confidence, to round off a victory with a final round of 67 strokes (-5) and a total of 265 (-23). The numbers speak for themselves, but also his nerves of steel to never let up, beyond any doubt at the beginning in a one-on-one with the Mexican Luis Carrera, which ended four shots away. The champion barely made a bogey on hole 3, on a card peppered with six birdies. If Carrera was within two shots midway through the round, the tension finally broke down on the final hole, when the Mexican fell into the water and paved the way for the champion to win the title.
“My life changed, I’m still in shock,” confessed Mateo, who added: “You must never stop dreaming.” Immediately, he was moved when he remembered his beginnings: “I started golf in 2009, when I was nine years old, because before I played soccer. So they bought me my first set of clubs and my friends picked me up and started calling me ‘addicted’. He left school at four in the afternoon and ten minutes later he was already playing on the field of Náutico San Isidro. There were many years of work and now being a champion seems incredible to me”.
In addition, he recounted his sensations from the moment he put his head on the pillow the day before until he got up. “It was a very long day. A lot of things went through my head. I got up at 4:40 in the morning and couldn’t sleep for the next hour. The only thing he thought was what would happen if he came out champion. Later, in the round I began to compete one hundred percent, I didn’t get to scheme so much in the prize until the final holes. When I hit the shot at 17 I already imagined that I had done all the hard work, but I was still trying to ‘bring myself back’ and concentrate on my routines to close the tournament”.
In the same final group there was another Argentine, Vicente Marzilio, who had it not been for his triple bogey in the 16th minute, he would have played a decisive role in the fight. Finally, the boy from the Hindu Club and from the University of North Texas finished 3rd to six strokes. In short, it was a great national global performance, since for the second consecutive year, accounting for the experience of 2022 in the Dominican Republic, the eight Argentines surpassed the qualifying cut.