Argentine Open Returns To Kick-Off The 2021-22 PGA TOUR Latinoamérica Season

Details

Category: Inside Golf

Published: 2021-12-02

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — After a 745-day hiatus due to the COVID-19 global pandemic, the 115th VISA Open de Argentina presented by Macro is set to make a much-awaited return at Nordelta Golf Club. Kicking off a 2021-22 season in which PGA TOUR Latinoamérica celebrates its 10th anniversary, this event will also mark the start of the race for both the Totalplay Cup and the Zurich Argentina Swing. Making this title an even bigger reward, the winner of Argentina’s national open will earn a spot in The Open Championship, which will be celebrating its 150th edition at the Old Course in St. Andrews, Scotland, next July.

It’s certainly one of the biggest golf weeks in Latin America.

“I would dare to say that this tournament is almost larger than our institution itself,” said Argentine Golf Association president Andrés Schonbaum, while discussing the prominence of this event established in 1905. “All of us put our hearts into this in order to have a deserving champion lifting the trophy of a tournament as important and respected worldwide.”

“El Abierto” (the Open), as the locals call it in a reverential manner, is a championship rich in history. To play it in early December, when the summer season is just getting started in the Southern Hemisphere, has been one of its biggest traditions.

“I love the Abierto,” says Tano Goya, a 2022 Korn Ferry Tour member who will be a player to watch among the 44 Argentine players in this week’s field. “The atmosphere of this event is really unique down here in South America. We all dream of winning this event, and having the opportunity to do it turns a fire inside of me.”

As the PGA TOUR Latinoamérica season-opening event, the Argentine Open will be the first tournament to award Totalplay Cup points. Starting this season, PGA TOUR Latinoamérica players will be battling in a points competition similar to the PGA TOUR’s FedExCup and the PGA TOUR Champions’ Charles Schwab Cup. At the end of the 12-event season, the player with the most points will be crowned Totalplay Cup champion, also claiming exempt status for the 2023 Korn Ferry Tour season. It is also the first of three tournaments in Argentina. The player accumulating the most points in the three Argentina tournaments wins the Zurich Argentina Swing and the bonus of U.S. $10,000.

Twenty-four miles from the city center, in Tigre, the Jack Nicklaus-designed Nordelta Golf Club is familiar territory for the Tour. For its first two seasons, in 2012 and 2013, PGA TOUR Latinoamérica had the VISA Open de Argentina as its season-ending event at this same venue. A par-72 that can play at 7,233 yards, Nordelta played tough back then, with the scoring average at an even 74 in 2012 and at 75.1 in 2013. The wind was a factor and remains a big issue on a typical Nicklaus layout that features plenty of water trouble.

“I particularly love it. This is a golf course pretty demanding off the tee, a course where the long hitters will probably have an edge,” says Martin Contini, who won the match-play Argentine Amateur Championship here in 2017.

A native of Tucuman, Contini recently secured eight 2023 Korn Ferry Tour starts by finishing inside the top 40 at the final stage of the Tour’s Qualifying Tournament in Georgia. It was his first time playing in that event.

“I won’t say it was a surprise, although it kind of was. I signed up at the very last minute, and I made it through first, second and final stage,” says the 27-year old, who turned pro in 2019.

The pot at the end of the Argentine Open rainbow is definitely a spot in The Open Championship, the oldest professional golf tournament in existence. Since 2016, the R&A has invited the VISA Argentine Open champion, something that will happen Sunday for a sixth consecutive time.

The last player to win the Abierto and The Open exemption was Colombia’s Ricardo “Pipo” Celia, who made his major championship debut with a couple of 72s last July at Royal St. George’s before missing the cut.

“It was an unbelievable experience that I can hardly put into words. To have a tournament such as the Argentine Open providing entry into a major is huge. It elevates the stature of such a storied tournament and makes the week even more special for all of us,” says the 29-year-old from Barranquilla. This week he is defending the title he won at the Jockey Club in November 2019.

The tournament begins at 7 a.m., local time Thursday, with 156 players from 19 countries and territories dreaming of joining an illustrious list of past champions that includes players such as Roberto De Vicenzo, Mungo Park, Jimmy Demaret, Tom Weiskopf, Eduardo Romero, Craig Stadler, Mark Calcavecchia, Mark O'Meara, Jim Furyk, Angel Cabrera and Jhonattan Vegas.

Tournament Fast Facts

Official Name: 115th VISA Open de Argentina presented by Macro
Hashtag: #VISAOpenbyMacro
Dates: December 2-5, 2021
Host venue: Nordelta Golf Club, Par 72 (36-36) 7,233 yards
Designer: Jack Nicklaus
Field: 156 players from 19 countries
Defending champion: Ricardo “Pipo” Celia (Colombia)
Purse: US $175,000 – Winner’s share US $31,500
Totalplay Cup points: Awarded to the top-55 and ties, with 500 going to the winner
Cut: Top 55 and ties

Key Information

2021-22 Zurich Argentina Swing Schedule

Established in 1905 and played every year since—except for 1945 and 2020—this prestigious championship is joining PGA TOUR Latinoamérica for the ninth time since 2012. 

Behind The Open Championship, the India Open, the U.S. Open, the Australian Open, the South African Open and the Canadian Open, the VISA Open de Argentina is the seventh-oldest national open still in existence.

• Others