For Mateo Pulcini, the break of a lifetime now presents the opportunity of a lifetime.<\/p>\n
The 25-year-old Argentine somehow threaded a shot through a tree to stay alive in a playoff opposite Venezuela\u2019s Virgilio Paz on Sunday at Lima Golf Club in Peru. On the next extra hole, Pulcini tapped in for par to become the oldest winner in Latin America Amateur Championship history, a triumph that earned the affable mid-amateur spots in three upcoming major championships.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were a lot of nerves coming in, but I tried to have fun, I tried to laugh,\u201d Pulcini said. \u201c\u2026 Being in that position was something that I was dreaming about at the beginning of the week, so why not take advantage of that and enjoy it?\u201d<\/p>\n
Pulcini entered Sunday\u2019s final round, which was delayed about an hour because of fog, as the third highest of his countrymen on the leaderboard. Segundo Oliva Pinto, who like Pulcini ended his college career at the University of Arkansas, led at 5 under, a shot better than Argentina\u2019s Andy Schonbaum and Brazil\u2019s Eduardo Matarazzo.<\/p>\n
But the final threesome of Oliva Pinto, Schonbaum and Matarazzo combined to shoot 13 over. Oliva Pinto\u2019s putter, clutch all week in bailing out some shaky ball-striking, started to betray him as he carded just one birdie and four bogeys. Schonbaum didn\u2019t make a par until his ninth hole; he\u2019d finish the round with only five pars. Matarazzo\u2019s 76 dropped him out of the top 10.<\/p>\n
Colombian junior Tomas Restrepo, an Ole Miss signee who just captured the Junior Orange Bowl, made a charge alongside Pulcini and Paz, but a closing bogey ended his chances at 3 under, where he tied for third with current Arkansas sophomore, Paraguay\u2019s Erich Fortlage.<\/p>\n
Pulcini bogeyed three times on the final day, though twice he backed up the dropped shot with birdie, including at the par-4 14th hole. Three holes later, Pulcini drained a 20-footer to save par at No. 17, a make made even bigger considering Paz had just poured in a 25-foot birdie putt to tie Pulcini at 5 under. Paz, a senior at Missouri, converted a 6-footer for par to force overtime, just the second playoff in LAAC history and first since Toto Gana won the 2017 title.<\/p>\n
Pulcini hit poor iron shots off the 18th tee twice in as many playoff holes. With his tee ball on the first extra hole burying in the right rough, the burly Pulcini opted to just muscle his second shot as close to the green as possible. His ball came out low, bee-lining toward an oak tree. Somehow, the ball not only made it through, but left Pulcini a manageable pitch from the fairway.<\/p>\n
\u201c99% air,\u201d Pulcini told walking reporter Steve Burkowski as he walked by, a huge smile on his face.<\/p>\n
Pulcini was a three-time All-American in four years at D-II Oklahoma Christian before transferring to Arkansas, whose head coach, Brad McMakin, called Pulcini \u201cone of the nicest kids you\u2019ll ever meet.\u201d But Pulicini only logged five events for the Razorbacks as a graduate senior, mostly a byproduct of severe shortcomings on the greens. Putting has long been a weakness of Pulcini, who averaged nearly 36 putts per round during his one season at Arkansas in 2023-24. But not on this day.<\/p>\n
After Pulcini\u2019s next shot checked up a little too much into the grain, he responded with a must-make from 20 feet to extend.<\/p>\n
Despite another tee shot from Pulcini that leaked right, Paz hooked driver into a nasty lie in the left rough, then compounded his mistake by missing the green well right, his ball settling under a tree and against some wires. Paz, barely able to stand up, chipped 40 feet past and couldn\u2019t make the comebacker. That set up Paz to hit another Texas wedge \u2013 he relied on that shot throughout the day \u2013 to 3 feet, where he\u2019d then tap in for the win.<\/p>\n
Pulcini is the oldest LAAC winner by two years over Mexico\u2019s Alvaro Ortiz (2019), who also played at Arkansas. He\u2019s the third Argentinian champion, following Abel Gallegos (2020) and Mateo Fernandez de Oliveira (2023), the latter yet another Razorbacks alum.<\/p>\n
Entering the week, Pulcini was deciding on when he\u2019d turn professional. Now, he\u2019ll table that decision until after starts at the Masters, U.S. Open and Open Championship.<\/p>\n
\u201cI guess I have time after The Open to think about that,\u201d Pulcini said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For Mateo Pulcini, the break of a lifetime now presents the opportunity of a lifetime. The 25-year-old Argentine…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":418541,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[427,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-418540","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-golf","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=418540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418540\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/418541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}