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Eric GomezMexico writer
The dread of déjà vu washed over Alvaro Ortiz in January as he stared down the final nine holes of the 2019 Latin America Amateur Championship.
Ortiz had been in this position before in this same tournament, holding a lead in the final round. Two years in a row, to be exact. Both times, the day would end with someone else posing for pictures, trophy in hand.
“I’d knocked on the door before, and it didn’t open for me,” said Ortiz, a 23-year-old native of Zapopan, located in the state of Jalisco in western Mexico. “Those last nine holes, I felt like I was going through exactly the same as I did last year.”
In 2018, Ortiz held a one-stroke lead over Chile’s Joaquin Niemann and Argentina’s Jaime Lopez heading into the final day. Niemann went on to shoot a championship-record 63 to blow past Ortiz, eventually winning by five strokes in his home country. A year before that in Panama, Ortiz and Niemann lost a three-way playoff to another Chilean, Tomas “Toto” Gana.
Both times, Ortiz had seen the eventual winners benefit from amazing good fortune. In his winning round, Niemann notched an eagle after having his drive on the eighth hole reach the green when his shot ricocheted off a tree. In the 2017 playoff, Gana stroked an approach from 99 yards out and placed it two feet away to set up an easy birdie — “the best shot I’ve hit in my whole life,” Gana would say after his victory.
Ortiz was determined not to let victory escape from his grasp this time around at the Diente de Perro course in Casa Campo, Dominican Republic. He held off Costa Rica’s Luis Gagne to finally claim the Latin America Amateur and clinch an automatic spot in the Masters, becoming the first Mexican golfer to do so since Victor Regalado‘s 1979 appearance.
With his Latin America Amateur victory in tow, Ortiz wants the world to take notice of what he and other golfers are calling the beginning of the “golden age” of the sport in Mexico. That’s a heady outlook considering it’s been more than a decade since Mexico’s only triumph at a major tournament, World Golf Hall of Famer Lorena Ochoa’s five-stroke victory at the the 2008 Kraft Nabisco Championship.
“Mexico is a golfing power in Latin America,” Ochoa said at an event in Mexico City earlier this year. “With the results that players like Gaby [Lopez], [Abraham] Ancer, Jose de Jesus Rodriguez and Alvaro Ortiz have had, we’re a world power.”
Rodriguez, the eldest of the three at 38, has 21 professional wins. The 25-year-old Lopez, who like Ortiz is an Arkansas product, has one win; the Texas-born Ancer (28, Oklahoma), arguably the top Mexican male golfer over the last year, has two and has qualified for the British Open. In the shadow of Ochoa — who gained attention for her achievements at the University of Arizona — more young Mexican golfers are emulating her path to stardom, including stops at NCAA programs before turning pro.
“She’s a legend,” Ortiz said of Ochoa. “She’s a role model to me, and if she said it, I agree with her. We’re living through the golden of age of golf in this country.”
Ortiz graduated from Arkansas last May, but three of his compatriots remain in the Razorbacks’ program: Maria Fassi, Ximena Gonzalez and Luis Garza, whom Ortiz mentored in his final two years at the school. Peru’s Julian Perico and Colombia’s Maria Hoyos are also on Arkansas’ 2018-19 roster.
“It’s funny, I can’t get kids from Dallas to commit, but we’ve got a bunch of kids from Latin America playing for us,” joked Brad McMakin, Ortiz’s golf coach at Arkansas. “They’re great kids, talented and very disciplined.”
In Ortiz’s case at the Latin American Amateur’s back nine, he was also poised and determined not to let emotions get the best of him. He said after his victory that he played “some of my best golf ever” in the Dominican Republic.
McMakin said the win revealed much about the driven Ortiz.
“That’s a tough course,” McMakin said. “Alvaro could’ve gone pro without this achievement; no one would’ve questioned him. It’s a testament to his drive and his discipline to do it.”
Having been in the Dominican Republic to cheer Ortiz on and offer advice, McMakin is excited to see what the future holds for his former player.
“It was so great, so emotional to see him break through and win that trophy,” McMakin said. “Now, the real fun begins.”
Ortiz will now set his sights on leaving a mark at Augusta National, the mythical course that has bewitched most of the game’s icons.
“I’ve been there once before, I definitely got the chills,” Ortiz said ahead of the first golf major of 2019, which begins Thursday. “I want to take advantage of being there, meeting some of the biggest stars. Tiger [Woods] for sure. Rory McIlroy, Sergio Garcia … I want to pick their brains.”
After the praise from Ochoa, after honing his skills at Arkansas and after breaking through at the Latin America Amateur, Ortiz is locked in and confident going into his first go-round.
“People are telling me I’ve got to focus on making the cut,” Ortiz said. “As if that’s enough. I’m thinking about that green jacket. Maybe that sounds too brash, but I’m not going to Augusta just to have fun. I’m going there to win.”