Champions Press Conference | #LAAC2024

The 2024 Latin America Amateur Champion, Santiago de la Fuente attends a press conference following his win.

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Additional information:

The 8th edition of the Latin America Amateur Championship (LAAC) will be held from January 12-15, 2023, at Grand Reserve Golf Club in Puerto Rico.

Founded in 2014 by the Masters Tournament, The R&A and the USGA, the LAAC was established to further develop amateur golf in South America, Central America, Mexico and the Caribbean. The championship annually moves to top courses throughout Latin America and showcases the sport’s rising talent in the region, including PGA Tour winners and 2020 Olympians such as Joaquin Niemann of Chile, the 2018 LAAC champion, and Sebastián Muñoz of Colombia.

This year’s champion receives an invitation to compete in the 2022 Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club and automatically qualifies for The 150th Open at St Andrews. The winner also receives full exemptions into The Amateur Championship, U.S. Amateur Championship and any other USGA amateur championship for which he is eligible and is exempt into the final stages of qualifying for the 2022 U.S. Open Championship.

The typical 120-player field is comprised annually of the top male amateurs in Latin America representing the 29 IOC-recognized countries and territories from this region that are current members of the International Golf Federation.

We welcome Santiago de lafuente to the media center congratulations Santiago congratulations Mexico it’s always nice to represent your country and uh Hoist the trophy at the end of the week I see tears in your eyes can you tell me how excited you are at this moment it’s a very unreal feeling I mean

Even though I’ve been preparing myself for for the winning moment the winning part visualizing myself chasing uh the guy that’s winning winning by five I visualize every scenario possible still feels unreal and still feels I don’t I don’t think there’s even words to describe it well I have a way

To describe it 11 birdies and one bogy in the last 36 holes that was a very good uh way to play in the weekend can you tell us when did this bird streak start I mean I think if people if the people were watching a home they they could tell

That birdies were very close I was hitting edges uh Thursday Friday and Saturday I mean I knew it was just a matter of time I just had to wait for my run to come and lot it came okay so we’re open for questions please yes we start with Marco n Al Ortiz M

Fernandez first of all congratulations on your win um hin niman Mato Fernandez Ola Alber Ortiz came quite close to winning the tournament before they actually won the tournament um can you tell us how important it is to have the a previous experience in order to uh finally win the trophy engl okay

I don’t think it’s that important actually I don’t recommend it because it’s quite Painful but it actually helped me get to know myself better both in golf and as a person it helped me improve in many in many ways and also to um make my life more professional yeah yes next question please yeah yeah okay ju yeah sanago so

I wanted to get your reaction to a couple of things in one and I Tred to do this English he said I spoke with your dad and your mom they all G together in noan all the family to celebrate but he’s this is what he said he said is

Beautiful and incredible that he accomplished it goal and um it’s the result of a lot of years of discipline and uh sacrifice for this sport what do you think yeah I mean I I’ve been working so hard through my entire life just to reach whatever I want to accomplish and

Obviously having my family by my side it’s a big part of it they the way they support me it’s unreal they know how much I love golf and how much I want things and this was one of the things I wanted to to get so I mean I haven’t

Talked to anybody in my family but it’s I’m just grateful to have him and and for them to be able to understand what everything means to me and then the second thing is I I spoke with your coach in Houston and he said he’s not just a beautiful player he’s

Also a wonderful guy so tell me about your experience with him and and Houston at the University he has been a great coach for me I mean ever since I transferred to Houston he he’s been very helpful he’s helped me to improve in many

Ways and to grow as a person as well so I’m just grateful to be there and I just can’t wait to get back next question question yes I was speaking to Mato earlier and he said that even though he tried was no way catching you uh Colombia has been

Trying to get this tournament for a long time so what does it take to have that solid game and to win this tournament here I’m going to quote Al Ortiz things he said to me after he won before my first lack at Maya I asked him

If he could give me a tip to play this tournament okay first of all you have to believe that you can do it if you don’t believe in yourself there’s no way can get this so you have to believe that you can uh win this Tournament and Colombia has a lot of very good players you’ve been knocking at the door very I mean in in several uh situations and I think that uh Colombia will get a win in the future future yes I have two questions the first one is at what point did you believe that you

Could win this tournament and the second question is uh how did you feel when you were standing on the ball uh after uh Omar had hit his shot and you were in a better position because you were in a flatter um lie I believe I could win this

Tournament since I arrived here on Monday I prepare myself quite a lot just focusing on this tournament I came here about 15 uh days ago to walk the golf course to play it with my team with my pepe but I I still I kept pushing uh all

Throughout the round because Omar is a very good player and until that last SP dropped uh that’s the moment I felt the tournament and I knew the tournament was mine see Martin or yesterday after you round we cross paths and uh you said I and I told him

Well you had some parts really close to the hole and you said tomorrow they’re all going in so how do you uh go about with that uh strong belief in yourself okay so um it all starts with preparation the way I prepare for this tournament um this is one of the few

Tournaments that we play that has 72 holes so preparing myself and knowing that I had to be patient was one of the keys see josea see Okay so what I would like to know is the process between last night the the moment you finished playing until this morning when you started playing what do you tell yourself how you go about uh what are your thoughts I’m going to tell you a little secret that not many people

Know yesterday I was quite ill I wasn’t able to sleep at all from Friday night until Saturday morning Saturday Saturday night till to today in the morning Friday to Saturday sorry Friday night till Saturday morning okay so I had some food I went to the gala and then I went back to

Sleep there wasn’t much to think about everything was done everything was prepared the only thing I had to do was go out and play gracias see Santi I want to know what Santa Maria meant and what it will mean for you because of of course you will have great

Memories of this golf course and how did you feel during the round with all those people walking with you very impressive the the warmth and the the cheers that I got from the from the galleries I’m quite grateful with the people of Panama with the people at the

Club and uh for all the ones that made this possible the treatment we received both from Nacho and alv was fantastic every day they came and asked us if if everything was okay if were we were feeling okay if everything was under control and I mean I’m really really grateful for all

That so so both Santa Maria and Panama are going to be two places where I’m going to be uh very fond of for my in my life Mar Santiago now that we can talk about the majors that you’re going to play the Masters the open and the US open what

Motivates you more or most of each of these Majors measuring my golf against the best players in the world that’s one of the reasons I play this tournaments at this uh moment in my life so it’s my last year at school and being able to play with the best players in

The world can help me measure my game against them and see what needs what things I need to improve in order to compete against them see John bu wolf [Applause] Li lios let [Applause] so I try not to cry as well um Santi what does it mean for that

Little kid that came from khisko that is going to play in the Masters and all your dad did for you throughout these years Masters if I could if I were to tell that little boy back home that I was going to be playing in the Masters uh

When I was six or seven years old I think I would be running like crazy all around the the house the support that I have received from my family from my grandparents my uncles my girlfriend everybody that has helped me without their support I wouldn’t have been

Here I am completely grateful to all of them and I owe them everything that will come in my career see so you were talking about the moments that you were a kid uh back home in Kaliso but now that you have succeeded maybe you will be like a role model for

All those kids back home that will be watching you play in the Masters they open and the US Open so what do you tell them how do you feel about being a role model for those Kids I feel very proud to be a role model for all those kids that are watching me back home in Latin America I all I can tell them is yes you can I grew up watching Alvaro Alvaro was my my idol and uh well yes you can do it so now I’m here I’m I will have my name carved next to his here in the on the trophy so well go ahead practice a lot

Because moments like this happen and when they do well happy moments are really incredible see Marco Santi you’re in your last year in college so I was wondering whether this was going to be your last Latin American amateur championship and if after playing the three Majors you will become professional

Yes it was going to be my last Edition because I was thinking about becoming a professional after the qual for the US amateur because it’s my last year uh because it was sorry the the US amateur because it was going to be my last tournament before qualifying for the US

Open for the for the tour sorry so how is how important is for someone like you to have a a full team behind you both the Mexican Federation as well as who are really supporting you this week very important all the work is done outside the golf

Course we just come here to see the results we train everything really really hard the the Tactical the mental part okay and here we just come and uh show how much we work outside or behind the ropes Felix Congratulations uh I would like to know what was uh you you started the round three shots behind the leader Omar at what point during the round did you feel like you were going to move ahead of him and what is the mentality how do you go

About um preparing for this kind of of situations the key point was when I made that birdie at the six hole and uh because Omar hits the ball about 30 yards longer than I do and I kept uh play with my own strategy and I had that

Birdie that birdie fur at the six hole so I decided to follow my own strategy and attack whever it was Pro uh possible we have one more questions one or two that’s it another of the shots of this tournament that will remain remind um stay in our memories would be the 17th

Can you tell us what how many yards you had and what um Club you you hit 170 yards um downwind left to right left to right so I like to hit the ball both ways it was just a nineiron hit it really strong and let the wind do the

Rest so with this we conclude the press conference congratulations once again and enjoy your year and the three Majors thank you so much to everyone for coming here