Latin America Amateur Championship: Notes From Panama, Saturday

And the weather today in Panama? Well, it’s cool and overcast with a light drizzle. Just kidding... it’s… Scorchio! I wonder how long it would take one to acclimatise to this heat. When I say one, I mean me. I wonder how long it would take me to acclimatise to this heat. I wonder if any of those Scottish colonists I wrote about yesterday ever said, “I tell you what, I might just put on a jerkin today, I’m a bit chilly.” I doubt it.

Something I’ve noticed visiting the Latin America Amateur Championship (LAAC) over the last nine years is there seems to be a real obsession with rooftop bars and restaurants that’s consistent across the entire region. If it aint on a rooftop, these guys and girls aint interested.

We went to a funky rooftopper in Costa del Este last night for the media dinner. Called Zielo, there was a great vibe and bustle to the place and both food and drinks were top drawer. Beef that was cooked to perfection!

Anyhow, rooftop bars – I like them, even if I find them a slightly alien concept. I’m used to going underground to bars or maybe finding them hidden away in shady alleyways. There’s a great Irish bar at Schipol Airport that is almost impossible to find and when you do, it’s really quite grubby so I love it. On the way out here, I went for a pint and, honestly, watched a mouse run past me and into the kitchen. The bar staff just ignored it. If anything, they appeared to welcome him in. Perhaps he works there.

Worthy of note at Zielo are the lavatorial facilities – always something I like to comment on… The ones there though make you feel like Hunter S. Thompson after 100 pages or so of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. I went for a visit then had to have a little lie down. Never have you seen such a spectrum of light and colour in a gentlemen’s convenience. It's quite spectacular.

The golf is underway and Omar Morales of Mexico is off to a fast start. He birdied the first hole to move two clear then added another quick birdie to get to four-under. I’ve been watching a bit of his play, and he appears to have a game with something a little extra. During my time travelling for the LAAC and the Asia Pacific Amateur Championship (AAC), I’ve only ever picked out two players for whom I’ve stuck my neck on the line and said – “They will be top professionals.” Those two were Hideki Matsuyama when I went to Tokyo in 2010 (he was 18) and Joaquin Niemann who I followed when he won the LAAC as a teenager in Santiago in 2018. Watching both, it was obvious they were a cut above the other youngsters in the field at the events in question. 

Well, Morales is almost there. His only problem is his putting. It just looks shaky – He uses the claw grip which is a bit worrying for a 20-year-old (I didn’t turn to it until my late 30s, although I probably should have done so a good deal sooner,) and his whole stroke is a little less than positive. But, putting can be fixed and I reckon, if he does do that, he could become a very successful professional golfer… So, basically, I’m not putting my neck on the line just yet. I’m shuffling it up to the line.

Where does the saying – put your neck on the line – come from? It basically means, you are personally choosing to take a risk, so it can’t be to do with beheading because I don’t imagine anyone has ever chosen to take a risk by putting their neck on the block to see what might happen… You’re generally forced to do that… Any other ideas?

Talking of taking risks, I was discussing my plans for leading the Scottish reoccupation of Darien over dinner last night with a nice chap called Felix from the Dominican Republic. Having heard some very good things about the Dominican Republic from him, I’m thinking of redirecting my efforts and attempting to take it over instead. I’ll possibly need a little backing, I might see if the Duke of Hamilton is interested.