Who is Mateo Fernández de Oliveira, the only Argentine golfer to play in the Augusta Masters

' 25th tournament appearance ,

's search

for the one major missing from his collection and world number one

's attempt to repeat last year's success are some of the highlights of the

de golf that began this Thursday and will end on Sunday.

Among so many stars,

At 23 years old, the Sanisidrense

who are participating in the contest that distributes 15 million dollars in prizes (the others are the Americans

,

and

, the Northern Irishman

, the Australian

and the South African

) and

to give the present in Augusta (before

did it in 1951,

in 1963 and

in 2020).

Despite his youth,

.

He started it when he was nine years old and started playing at

.

Before reaching most of these, he was the Argentine U-15 and U-18 champion, twice (in 2014 and 2015) won the Pre-Youth South American Championship and won the bronze medal at the South American Youth Games in Santiago de Chile. 2017 and the gold medal in teams with Ela Anacona, who is currently his girlfriend.

Mateo Fernández de Oliveira with his caddy, Rubén Yorio, tour the Augusta National Golf Club course.

Photo: Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images/AFP.

In 2018 he was the South American youth champion and also won the

in the team event (also with Ela Anacona) at the

that took place in Buenos Aires.

Already in 2022, he represented the Argentine team that participated in the

in Paris (France) and the international team that won the

in Geneva (Switzerland).

He did all this as a fan, a condition that he still maintains, since he combines sports practice with study: at the

, which he also represents as a golfer, he is completing his Communications degree (he will graduate mid-year ).

And how did the Buenos Aires native get the golden ticket to participate in the Masters?

He won it on January 15, just one day before his 23rd birthday, when in Río Grande, Puerto Rico, he won the Latin American Amateur Championship (LAAC), a contest whose first edition, in 2015, he had assisted as a volunteer at the Pilar Golf Club.

Mateo Fernández de Oliveira qualified for the Augusta Masters thanks to winning the Latin American Amateur Championship in January of this year in Puerto Rico.

On Puerto Rican soil, he had a remarkable job: he beat his guard, the Mexican Luis Carrera, by four strokes, and his 265 strokes (23 under par) allowed him to shatter

(273).

He thus became the second Argentine to win this trophy (Abel Gallegos had won it in 2020).

," he acknowledged that day.

The consecration in the LAAC not only gave him access to the Augusta Masters, but will also allow him to participate in two other majors:

, which will take place between June 15 and 18 at the Los Angeles Country Club, and the

, which will take place from July 20 to 23 at Royal Liverpool Hoylake (where

won the title in 1967).

After that, and with his university career complete, he will jump to professionalism.

For now, the first vertex of this giant triangle is in Augusta, where he is sharing the hours with his parents, his brother, his partner, his sister-in-law and four friends who traveled from Buenos Aires.

she said on the eve of her debut.

This Thursday, he completed with 76 strokes (4 over par) the round he shared with the American Bubba Watson and the Irish Seamus Power.

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