The Mexican remains the leader and five Panamanians advance in the LAAC

Mexican Omar Morales He is the sole leader in the championship after the second round of the Latin American Amateur Championship held at the Santa María Golf Club in Panama. A card of 69 shots (-1) was enough for the best player in the world amateur ranking (72) to take the top spot with a total of 138 shots (-2) and one over the Colombian Mateo Fuenmayor, who with 68 shots (-2) established the lowest round of the championship.

For his part, Miguel Ordónez, Samuel Durán, Omar Tejeira, Raúl Carbonell and Diego Álvarezhe managed to make the cut, which was set at 14 strokes above the Santa María par course.

On the second day, Ordónez managed to even par the field in 70 strokes, after a not so good debut of seven over par. “The experienced Panama player said he was feeling very excited after a great game that allowed him to continue his fight to Sunday as well as his other four compatriots.

Wind and positions again flag, with natural weight of this Nicklaus design, were the main protagonists on a day that left only Morales and Fuenmayor on equal terms on the field.

With the weight of a strong title contender, Morales repeated Thursday’s result to clean up the championship lead he now enjoys alone. Four birdies and three bogeys was the positive balance of the player from UCLA who had the luxury of hitting in 2023 maiden shot at the US Open and played at the Open his country, valid for the PGA TOUR. “We are playing in very complicated conditions, the track is not easy, and even less so with this wind. To actually finish two rounds under par is a very good thing. It is difficult to find the fairway from the tee and the greens have become increasingly difficult. It’s an honor to be leading the weekend, but I’m trying not to think too much about what’s to come, but one day at a time,” said the 20-year-old, whose best performance in the LAAC is T24. in 2020

We had another very difficult day, with a lot of wind, but I’m hitting the ball very well, I hit 14 or 15 greens and I managed to make a few opportunities that I missed. I learned a lot about myself experience in LAAC last year“But I have to keep going shot by shot because the championship won’t be won tomorrow,” said Fuenmayor, who was leading after the first round of the 2023 LAAC in Puerto Rico. Colombian, student at Oregon State Universityhe is ranked 466 on the WAGR and just finished 49th in the South American Amateur competition played in his country last week.

Among the local representatives, Miguel Ordoñez recovered from a poor start on Thursday and with 70 strokes (even) climbed almost twenty places to secure a place for the weekend.

The qualifying cut has finally been established at 154 strokes (+14) so ​​there will be 55 players to play the final 36 holes in this ninth edition of the LAAC. Either way, this isn’t the highest-scoring cut in history Championship: At the 2020 Mayakoba in Mexico, he closed at 155 strokes.

Mark Lawrie, in the Media Centre

Regional Director of Research and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean, Mark Lawrieheld this Friday the traditional press conference for accredited journalists at LAAC 2024. The current state of amateur golf in the region and the current situation at this championship are some of the topics covered in the Media Center.

Free admission: all week for fans who want to witness LAAC at the Santa María Golf Club in Panama, you can do it with free admission. A good opportunity to enjoy the best amateur golf in the region just 15 minutes from downtown Panama City.

LAAC 2024 IN FIGURES:

3- Players who competed in each of the first eight editions: Jarryd Dillas, from Bermuda; Miguel Ordóñez, from Panama; and Álvaro Ortiz, from Costa Rica.

25- They are the number of birds that made by Matías Domínguez (2015), Mateo Fernández de Oliveira (2023) and Luis Carrera (2023), at most in one issue of LAAC. It seems unlikely that this figure will be exceeded this year.

5- Players who finished in the Top-10 of the 2023 championship will return in 2024, led by Argentina’s Vicente Marizilio (3rd), Mexico’s José Islas (4th) and Argentina’s Manuel Lozada (5th).