Texas Tech University Athletics
Dominguez Earns Masters Invite with Latin Amateur Win
January 18, 2015 | Men's Golf
Jan. 18, 2015
Texas Tech senior Matias Dominguez claimed the inaugural Latin America Amateur Championship and an automatic invitation to the 2015 Masters Tournament with a 1-under, 71 in Sunday's final round.
Dominguez, playing for his native country of Chile, becomes the first Red Raider to qualify for The Masters as a current member of the Texas Tech Men's Golf team. The 2015 Masters Tournament will be played April 6-12 at Augusta National. He will be the first Chilean golfer to play at The Masters in more than 50 years.
"It was an unbelievable feeling that I've never felt before - not even close," Dominguez said. "It was a lot of pressure and different emotions going everywhere and almost impossible to control them. At the end of the 18th hole there was just a lot of satisfaction."
The 72-hole tournament came down to the wire on Sunday afternoon with Dominguez posting a one-stroke victory over Argentina's Alejandro Tosti. Despite bogeys on holes 16 and 18, he was able to seal the win thanks to building a three-stroke lead late in the round.
Sunday's final round went through a four hour rain delay as heavy thunderstorms moved through the area forcing the suspension of play at 11:45 a.m. local time. Once play resumed, Dominguez went out and birdied holes seven and eight to maintain his momentum.
"So much of the game of golf is mental," Texas Tech Head Coach Greg Sands said. "Essentially, Matias had to sleep on the lead twice. Once last night and then again today during the rain delay. For him to battle through and take command with those two birdies really set up the rest of the day."
After shooting even par in the first round on Thursday, Dominguez began his climb by posting a 7-under, 65 on Friday and a 3-under, 69 on Saturday to give him a one-stroke lead over Tosti heading into the final round. His second round score of 65 was his best round of golf since joining the Texas Tech golf team in 2011.
"This is a great opportunity for Matias and we thrilled at what he has done," Sands said. "He has worked so hard just to get to this point and to see him to do so well is really satisfying.
"He has worked so hard at becoming a leader and has really take on the role of being our team captain. He thrived in the Leadership class that he took last semester as part of the Fearless Champions Leadership Academy and that has made a huge difference for him."
In all, Texas Tech had three players finish in the top 15 of the tournament as freshman Guillermo Pereira (Chile) finished tied for fifth while senior Esteban Restrepo (Colombia) tied for 15th. Pereira, the top ranked Latin America Amateur in the latest World Amateur Golf Rankings, shot a 3-under, 69 in today's final round to earn the top five finish. Restrepo was equally impressive as he shot a 2-under, 70 to move into the top 15.
All three student-athletes will return to Lubbock to begin preparations for the spring season opener that gets underway on Feb. 5 in Kona, Hawaii, at the Amer Ari Invitational. Texas Tech is ranked 16th nationally in the latest Golfweek rankings and will host the NCAA Regionals at The Rawls Course, May 14-16.
About The Latin America Amateur Championship
Invitations for the championship are sent to the leading players from the 29 IOC-recognized countries and territories from this region that are current members of the International Golf Federation. Each organization is automatically provided with two positions, which are to be filled by their highest-ranked players from the World Amateur Golf Rankings (WAGR) as of November 5, 2014.
If there is only one or no players from the country in the rankings, a member organization is able to nominate one or two players accordingly provided the player/s have a handicap of 5.4 or less.
The remainder of the field is filled by taking the next highest ranked players from the WAGR with the maximum number of players allowed from any organization being six. The only exception is for the host country, which is allowed to nominate an additional four players.
Congratulations to @Afidominguez, the 2015 @LAAC_Golf Champion! See you at Augusta National in April! pic.twitter.com/T6hcYnnCGC
-- Masters Tournament (@The_Masters) January 18, 2015
Matias Dominguez @Afidominguez is the new #LAAC2015 Champion. Congratulations!
-- LAAC (@LAAC_Golf) January 18, 2015
.@TexasTech senior Matias Dominguez wins the inaugural Latin America Amateur, earns a spot in the Masters.
-- Ryan Lavner (@RyanLavnerGC) January 18, 2015
Matias Dominguez has won the @LAAC_Golf title and will play in the Masters Tournament #WreckEm pic.twitter.com/ZkWna4DSIK
-- Blayne Beal (@BlayneBeal) January 18, 2015
Matias Dominguez wins @LAAC_Golf, will become second Chilean to play in @The_Masters: http://t.co/5MRIE7lC73
-- Golfweek Magazine (@GolfweekMag) January 18, 2015
"Here I am today, saying I'm going to the Masters. It is shocking." - @TTUMensGolf's Matias Dominguez: http://t.co/5MRIE7lC73
-- Golfweek Magazine (@GolfweekMag) January 19, 2015
