Argentina has three representatives on the
PGA Tour
, the mecca of world golf beyond the emergence of the
LIV Invitational
that is fighting to take over the ranks from the forces of Saudi petrodollars. The oldest is the Chaco veteran
Fabián Gómez
, who has played 235 tournaments, with two wins, since his arrival in 2011. The second most experienced is another Chaco native,
Emiliano Grillo
, who has been on the circuit for eight years, also with two victories, although lately with much more prominence than its countryman. But now is the time, he is a 27-year-old man from Rosario called
Alejandro Tosti
and this weekend he is experiencing his best performance on the tour, which he later had a season as brilliant as it was explosive in the
Korn Ferry Tour
, the category that serves as a quarry for the great circus of fairways and greens.
Tosti is looking for his first PGA crown this Sunday after finishing as one of the top five at the
Houston Open
. He shares the first step of the
leaderboard
with the English
David Skinns
, the German
Stephan Jaeger
, the Belgian
Thomas Detry
and, nothing more and nothing less, the American
Scottie Scheffler
, the undisputed number one in the world who is going for his third coronation of the year after shining
The Players
and at the
Arnold Palmer Invitational
. He is not the favorite, of course. In fact, the day starts with 12 players separated by just two strokes. But why not dream big. He has plenty of talent for the Argentine.
However, it's not all flowers for Tosti
. The thing is that 2023 was the year in which she got the card to reach the PGA Tour, but it was also a season of learning. By force.
In August, while playing the
Albertsons Boise Open
in Idaho, he received a harsh punishment for his misconduct and put at risk everything he had been achieving with the clubs in his hands. The Argentine exploded during the second day while waiting for his playing partner to execute a blow. Beyond the fact that the situation was handled with a discretion typical of a spy movie, they assure that
Tosti went overboard with the insults he launched against Kyle Westmoreland
. Something unacceptable in a gentleman's game that led to his expulsion from the tournament and the suspension of his card.
The problem is that that episode marked a recidivism
. It was the straw that broke the camel's back. There was, a week before, a complaint for
insults to his caddy
. It was the same tournament where he broke out after a poor execution and
not only threw the club to the ground, but kicked it so badly that he crashed into one of the tee markers
. To that we had to add the day in which he exploded against some rivals, whom he insulted from top to bottom because he considered that they did not let him advance in time and form in his game. And so the list of transgressions grew until he became something of a
persona non grata
for everyone who shared tournaments with him.
However,
Tosti clicked in time and managed to behave like the gentleman he is off the court
. He has already played 11 tournaments this season, with six made cuts and one appearance in the top ten. And these days he is going through his best weekend on the circuit, something he never even dreamed of when he started playing something similar to golf with a club and a table tennis ball in his native Rosario and was betting with his brother to see who it would be. the first to hit the hole in a grate.
Not even when he began to take it more seriously and dazzled with his talent at the Miter club in Pérez, where he arrived after traveling an hour by bus to go to practice. “That boy always dreamed on that trip to have the opportunity to play on the PGA Tour and now it is a reality. It's happening, so now I tell myself: enjoy it and do your best," he told the PGA Tour's official site on Friday.
@TCHouOpen pointer! 🇦🇷💪
A tight board with five leaders must overcome @AleTostiOK to dream of a @PGATOUR title. pic.twitter.com/fwIFBZa5L7
— Golf Channel LA (@GolfChannelLA) March 30, 2024
There, Tosti defines himself as a
"creative"
player , who likes to
"take risks from the tee
. "
“I enjoy visualizing a shot and just going out there and executing it. It's the fun part of the game. From a very young age I was always like that. I grew up on a field that is very short and you have to work the ball in both directions. The same thing happens here, but now the fields are longer,” explains the man who became a professional in 2018 and has not stopped growing since then. The following year he won the Latin American PGA Tour and last year he shone, beyond the unjustified and exaggerated tantrums, on the Korn Ferry Tour.
And he is excited about what is coming. “I was very sad at the beginning of the year not being able to get mentally involved with the game, not being connected, not getting the results I wanted. But we made a couple of changes this week and they're working, so we'll keep it that way."
Tosti, cook and fix tutti
Tosti loves cooking. She assures that she did not do it until she arrived in the United States and lived her university experience. However,
his Italian ancestry came as the genetic mark of gastronomy
. “We cook at friends' houses or everyone comes to your house or goes to a family party. It's always homemade food. “I grew up with my mom making lunch every day and then my dad making dinner for every meal.”
His favorite food is "baked chicken milanesas, with a good salad or mashed potatoes." However, over time he managed to sophisticate his palate and not only does he enjoy cooking Argentine food, but he also experiments with custom Asian dishes. who learns to use spices to accentuate flavors. “I enjoy preparing my dishes and exploring different types of cuisines.”
Tosti also recognizes that he has another passion beyond golf
. "I'm not a fanatic. I'm a good player who takes the time to do the work, but once the work is done, I take off and do a lot of things." And he reveals that he has two hobbies. One is cars and another is repairing gadgets.
Alejandro Tosti, in action. Photo: AFP
"I love cars. I try to tune them and change things myself and learn about it. I'm a repairman. I like to take things apart and find out what's going on, at least try. My father is an electronics engineer and I grew up watching a lot of things being taken apart and repaired, so that's something I'm still learning.”
And he continues: “The other day I found a blender that was next to a trash can. I took it all apart and there was only one cable cut. I soldered it and now it works very well.”