After finishing just a shot behind winner Aaron Jarvis at the 2022 Latin America Amateur Championship, Mateo Fernandez de Oliveira came to Puerto Rico for the 2023 championship probably looking to do one spot better.
He did that and more.
The 22-year-old Argentinian and University of Arkansas senior dominated the field at Grand Reserve Golf Club to finish at 23 under par and win the 2023 Latin America Amateur Championship by four strokes.
An unlikely, exciting character just punched his ticket to Augusta National
With the win, Fernandez de Oliveira earns exemptions into this year’s U.S. Open, Open Championship, Amateur Championship and U.S. Amateur. He also earns a Masters Invitation.
The U.S. Open exemption is a first for the LAAC champ, but all four of the other exemptions were items Fernandez de Oliveria missed out on with his second place finish last year.
His 265 total for four rounds smashes Joaquin Niemann‘s tournament record of 273 from 2018. Fernandez de Oliveria’s third-round 63 also tied the Chilean LIV Golf star’s single-round record, also from 2018. His score in relation to par also blows away the previous record of 14 under from 2019.
And if Fernandez de Oliveira’s week needed another tie to Niemann, his win is also the third time the previous year’s runner-up has emerged victorious, joining Niemann and former Razorback and 2019 winner Alvaro Ortiz.
Fernandez’s scorching hot third round gave him a four-shot cushion to begin the day and he extended it further with a birdie at the first hole. He made bogey on the 3rd, but birdies on five of the next nine holes allowed him to coast to a 67 and the win.
He’s the second Argentinian to win the event, which was founded in 2014 by Augusta National Golf Cub, the USGA and R and A as a way to grow the game in the region.