A 45-year-old part-time golfer from Colombia shocked everyone by grabbing a share of the lead at the Latin America Amateur Championship in Buenos Aires on Thursday.
Manuel Merizalde, who only plays golf on Friday afternoons, fired an impressive 6-under 66 at Pilar Golf Club. He’s tied at the top with Patrick Sparks of Peru and Gabriel Palacios of Guatemala.
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The stakes couldn’t be higher. The winner gets a dream ticket to play in this year’s Masters, U.S. Open, and The Open Championship.
“I wasn’t expecting much to tell you the truth,” Merizalde said with a laugh. “Sometimes that helps when you don’t have a lot of expectations, when you’re just going out to have some fun. The less you try, the better you do.”
It’s quite a comeback for Merizalde. Twenty years ago, he was playing alongside Colombian golf star Camilo Villegas in the World Cup and competing for Brigham Young University. Now, he works at a security company and considers himself lucky if he can squeeze in two rounds of golf a week.
But on Thursday, he looked like a full-time pro. Merizalde racked up five birdies in his first eight holes, with his only slip-up being a bogey on the par-5 10th hole.
His young co-leader Palacios, a 19-year-old sophomore at the University of Utah, caught fire on the back nine with four straight birdies. Meanwhile, Sparks put together a wild round that included seven birdies and an eagle to offset a few mistakes.
Looking ahead to next year, tournament officials announced the 2025 championship will head to Lima Golf Club in Peru. It’s a make-good for the canceled 2021 event that fell victim to COVID-19.
Augusta National Chairman Fred Ridley also noted that while Hurricane Helene took down some trees at the famous Masters venue, the course is in “spectacular shape” for this year’s tournament.
