Segundo Oliva Pinto Leads Latin America Amateur Championship
Argentina’s Segundo Oliva Pinto leads the 11th instalment of the Latin America Amateur Championship with a round to play.
Segundo Oliva Pinto of Argentina fired a fabulous third round of 64 to take a one-shot lead in the Latin America Amateur Championship at Lima Golf Club in Peru with one round to play.
26-year-old Oliva Pinto birdied the 2nd, 5th, 7th and 8th holes on the front nine before a bogey at the ninth. He then made three straight birdies at the 12th, 13th and 14th holes. Those birdies were key but crucial to his final score were the two up-and-downs he made on the 17th and 18th holes, the two toughest on the course. Oliva Pinto finished on five-under through 54 holes.
“I was pretty far behind when I started [the day],” said Oliva Pinto, who made it clear before the Championship that his one and only goal this week was to win. “I was trying to pull my thought into making good swings and doing my own thing. Some days, you pull that off and it's a good result. Today that was the case.”
Oliva Pinto is making his sixth Championship start and has never finished outside the top 15. He finished tied for third last year in Buenos Aires.
Another Argentinian Andy Schonbaum, the 36-hole leader, was in front for most of the day but stumbled to a double bogey on the 11th. He recovered well with birdies at the 13th and 14th holes but another double on the testing 18th left him at four-under, one back of Oliva Pinto.
Schonbaum is one of the more experienced players in the field. Aged 34, he is making his 10th LAAC appearance. His best finish prior to this event was a tie for 11th back in 2020.
Also on four-under is Brazil’s Eduardo Matarazzo. He posted a second straight 66 that included five birdies and just one dropped shot.
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Matarazzo is making his second LAAC start in 2026. In 2025, the Barry University freshman won the Citrus Intercollegiate for his first collegiate victory, finished fourth in the Brazilian Amateur and represented his country in the Eisenhower Trophy in Singapore.
The pressure will build for the final round as the competitors in contention begin to consider the prizes on offer in Lima this week. Those prizes could be life changing for the victor.
The winner of the LAAC receives an invitation to compete in the 2026 Masters Tournament and exemptions into The 154th Open Championship at Royal Birkdale and 126th US Open Championship at Shinnecock Hills.
They also receive exemptions into The Amateur Championship and the US Amateur Championship. The runner-up or runners up will be exempt into the final stages of qualifying for The Open Championship and US Open Championship.
The second and third placed finishers will be exempt for The Amateur Championship.
Founded by The R&A, The Masters and The USGA, the LAAC was inaugurated with a view to developing the game of golf in Central and South America and the Caribbean.
Joaquin Niemann of Chile who won the LAAC in 2018 on home soil in Santiago, is perhaps the best-known graduate.
Others to have played in the event include Nico Echavarria, Sebastian Munoz, Mito Pereira, Alejandro Tosti and Alvaro Ortiz.
Championship coverage will include three hours of live coverage during each competitive round (2-5 p.m. local, 7-10 p.m GMT on Thursday/Friday and 11 a.m. - 2 p.m. local, 4-7pm GMT on Saturday/Sunday). International broadcasters include ESPN Platforms (Latin America and United States), Fox Sports (Australia), Sky Sports (United Kingdom), SPOTV (Pan-Asia), SuperSport (Africa) and TSN (Canada).
Fergus is Golf Monthly's resident expert on the history of the game and has written extensively on that subject. He has also worked with Golf Monthly to produce a podcast series. Called 18 Majors: The Golf History Show it offers new and in-depth perspectives on some of the most important moments in golf's long history. You can find all the details about it here.
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Fergus once shanked a ball from just over Granny Clark's Wynd on the 18th of the Old Course that struck the St Andrews Golf Club and rebounded into the Valley of Sin, from where he saved par. Who says there's no golfing god?
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