Early exit for Jamaicans at 11th Latin America Amateur Golf Champs
KINGSTON, Jamaica —Zandre Roye and Oshae Haye exited the 11th Latin America Amateur Golf Championship (LAAC) at the Lima Golf Club in Peru, after not making the cut at the end of the second round.
The four-day championship ended on Sunday with a dramatic win for Mateo Pulcini (69, 68, 70, 68) of Argentina who tied with Virgilio Paz Valdes (70, 73, 64, 68) of Venezuela after both golfers scored five under par 275 to tie for first place. Their score was just two shots better than the next-best player.
They then engaged in a play-off to determine the overall winner. They could not be separated after the first hole and had to engage in a tense second hole play-off. That ended with Pulcini edging Paz Valdes to be crowned the 2026 winner in front of a very good crowd.
Andy Schonbaum of Argentina, who was the round two leader, on the same day when the Jamaicans were cut from the championship, placed seventh, tied with Eduardo Derbez of Mexico. They both shot even par 280 over the four days.
The cut was made at position 56 with the score on eight over par at the halfway mark.
The two Jamaicans, Zandre Roye and Oshae Haye, found the conditions challenging during the championship and were on the back foot from the first round in 80th place and 101st position, respectively. They tried to improve on those performances but were further bogged down by the cold weather and narrow fairways on the par-70 golf course.
Roye closed the championship with scores of seven over par 79 and 10 over par 80 for a combined score of 19 over 159 and placed 96th. Haye’s scores were 13 over par 83 and 10 over par 80 for 23 over par 163 for the two rounds and placed 103rd.
Roye was happy to represent Jamaica at the championship while looking forward to performing better in the future based on what he learned this year.
“Coming into the championship, I was doing pretty well. I just came here and didn’t execute as well as I wanted to. The conditions were unfavourable to say the least, but all in all it was a great championship. I learned a lot. It was a great feeling representing the country once again. Just got to go back home and work on a few things, and we’ll be back again next year hopefully stronger and better,” he said.
There were 28 countries and 107 golfers in the championship this year.
The champion will receive a coveted invitation to compete in the Masters Tournament and exemptions into The Open and the US Open.
