Segundo Oliva Pinto (right) is standing by his bagman, Brant Brewer, after Brewer's rules gaffe cost Oliva Pinto a loss in his Round of 16 match.
(Instagram)
Mistakes happen. Sometimes, those mistakes don’t cost you. Other times, they can make a huge impact. Thursday at the 2020 U.S. Amateur was one of those times.
Coming into the 18th hole of his Round of 16 match tied with his opponent, Tyler Strafaci, Segundo Oliva Pinto was preparing to hit a shot from a bunker when his caddie appeared to touch the sand with his hands.
“It doesn’t really matter,” he said. “What happened happened.”
Then, later that night, Oliva Pinto took to Instagram and once again leapt to his caddy’s defense, calling him a “good guy” and writing that the situation “can happen to anyone,” capping it off with the hashtag “#noonesfault.”
Olivia Pinto handled what is undoubtedly a difficult situation with great sportsmanship, and in doing so, demonstrated the true spirit of the the game.
Luke Kerr-Dineen is the Game Improvement Editor at GOLF Magazine and GOLF.com. In his role he oversees the brand’s game improvement content spanning instruction, equipment, health and fitness, across all of GOLF’s multimedia platforms.
An alumni of the International Junior Golf Academy and the University of South Carolina–Beaufort golf team, where he helped them to No. 1 in the national NAIA rankings, Luke moved to New York in 2012 to pursue his Masters degree in Journalism from Columbia University. His work has also appeared in USA Today, Golf Digest, Newsweek and The Daily Beast.