When you come from a small country, being the first at something is a big deal. In 2003, Alejandro Villavicencio became the first golfer from Guatemala to qualify for the U.S. Amateur Championship. Five years later, he joined good friend Pablo Acuna as the first tandem from their country to play in the World Cup of Golf in the People’s Republic of China. And this week at Colorado Golf Club, Villavicencio, 39, added to his list of breakthrough achievements, becoming the first Guatemalan to play in the U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship.
He added to his legacy on Monday with a 3-and-2, Round-of-64 victory over Michael Brown, setting up a Round-of-32 match against No. 9 seed Andrew Rhodes, of Westfield, Ind., on Tuesday morning at 7:30 a.m. CDT.
Thanks to an exemption change, Villavicencio was among the top 30 age-eligible players in the World Amateur Golf Ranking™ (No. 337 overall). Previously, a player had to be inside the top 400, something Villavicencio had only recently achieved. Taking a two-hour flight from Guatemala City to South Florida to compete in an 18-hole qualifier didn’t make financial or logistical sense. Four years ago, he did sign up for a sectional site as part of a planned family vacation and was unsuccessful.
So when Villavicencio saw the USGA altered the WAGR category, he jumped at filing an entry.
“I’m very excited,” said Villavicencio after Monday’s win. “It’s fun playing golf courses like this: firm, fast and hard. Back home, if you set up a golf course like this, the members would go crazy.”
In Guatemala, only about 2,500 of the country’s 16.9 million inhabitants play golf. It’s generally a game for the wealthy as there are only six courses in Guatemala. There was a seventh, but La Reunion Resort, a Pete Dye design, was devastated last year by an active volcano. Only recently was a public driving range constructed in Guatemala City.
Villavicencio picked up the game through his father and uncle, who were members at one of the two private clubs in the country. When he was 6, he started playing and taking lessons from the club professional every Saturday. But there were few competitive opportunities. His biggest event was the IMG Junior Worlds in San Diego, a tournament he played three times. By the time he was 15, Villavicencio got bored over the lack of competition and decided to start racing jet skis with his brother. Four years later, he was back playing golf when the jet-ski race organizers stopped conducting events.
“This was the pre-Tiger [Woods] era,” he said. [Golf] was kind of boring because there wasn’t much competition.”
Because he didn’t play tournament golf through much of his high school years, he wasn’t recruited by any American colleges. Today, he said, it’s not all uncommon to see one or two Guatemalans sign to play in the States. He instead attended school in his native country before giving professional golf a try a year after he qualified for the U.S. Amateur at Oakmont (Pa.) Country Club. Villavicencio dabbled on the South American Tour and a mini-tour in Mexico, winning once in Colombia. In 2006, he advanced to the final stage of European Tour Qualifying School, only to earn partial status on the European Challenge Tour for 2007. When that didn’t go well, he began making plans for a future without golf.
“Each year, I realized it was much tougher,” said Villavicencio, who didn’t receive much financial support from sponsors. “Making a living trying to make birdies is not as fun as it sounds.”
He married wife Lorna in 2010 and started to manage her family’s steakhouse in Guatemala City. He also has a telecommunications company that builds cellphone towers in Guatemala and neighboring Nicaragua. That same year, he regained his amateur status, competing primarily in Guatemala.
As he started producing results, his status in the WAGR began to rise. He began representing his country in the World Amateur Team Championship, a biennial competition that he’s played five times. He also was invited to compete in the Latin America Amateur Championship in 2017 in Panama, where a first-round 65 had him atop the leader board – he eventually faded to a tie for 16th. A year later in Chile, he missed the cut, but bounced back to earn a share of 12th in the Dominican Republic in January.
Villavicencio also nearly qualified for the 2019 Pan American Games in Peru, but was surpassed in the WAGR by countryman Daniel Gurtner at the deadline. Nevertheless, opportunities such as the LAAC, which offers an invitation to the Masters, and the U.S. Mid-Amateur, in which the winner earns an exemption into the U.S. Open as well as a likely Masters invite, provides enough cache to convince his family to let him play.
Since arriving at Colorado Golf Club, Villavicencio instantly felt comfortable with the surroundings. Some struggle with the altitude, but with most venues in his home country nearly a mile above sea level, Villavicencio adjusted well.
“Here is very comparable to home,” he said. “The numbers don’t mess that much with my head.”
He also has good friend Acuna on his bag. The two played together in the 2008 World Cup, and Acuna played in another in 2011 with Jose Toledo, who qualified for the Korn Ferry Tour last year and won a silver medal in the individual portion of the Pan American Games.
Villavicencio is hoping Guatemala can start producing more high-level players. His 5-year-old son, Santiago, has shown interest, while 7-year-old daughter Arianna struggles with the mental side of the game. Soccer remains the country’s No. 1 sport, even though Guatemala hasn’t enjoyed a lot of international success.
Maybe golf is the way to help put the country on the map. A strong finish this week could bring some added publicity to the game and open up more doors for Villavicencio to play in prestigious amateur and mid-amateur events in the U.S. and abroad. But so far, he’s surpassed all of his expectations at Colorado Golf Club.
“I wanted to make match play,” he said. “And from now on, it’s just gravy, a bonus.”
And a chance to continue making history.
David Shefter is a senior staff writer for the USGA. Email him at dshefter@usga.org.
