Yuxin

Lin

The 18-year-old Argentine punched his Masters ticket by winning the Latin America Amateur Championship. That event was played at El Camaleon Golf Club, the same course used for the Mayakoba Golf Classic. With his LAAC win he also secured a birth into the Open Championship, British Amateur, and U.S. Amateur. Gallegos has plans to turn pro instead of attending college in the States. Gallegos recently pegged it at the Azalea Invitational and finished T39, nine shots behind another Masters competitor, Yuxin Lin, and one shot behind Lukas Michel. Gallegos is a longshot to contend, or even make the cut this week, but he is one to put on your radar for future events. Gallegos is currently 186th in the World Amateur Golf Ranking.

The USC sophomore won the Asia-Pacific Amateur two years in a row to punch a ticket into last year’s Masters as well as the Open Championship. He joined Hideki Matsuyama as the only two-time winner of that event. The 2020 edition of that amateur competition was canceled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Lin missed the cut at this event last year and also missed the cut at the Open Championship. The 20-year-old from Beijing currently ranks 29th in the World Amateur Golf Ranking which is the highest he’s reached by that measuring stick. The lefty has made some appearances in pro events recently with a T30 at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship (Euro Tour) in January and a T4 in a LOCALiQ Series event at the beginning of August. Gamers should consider him a raw prospect that has the potential to pop but is not likely to contend at this stage of his career.

The 17-year-old left-hander from China secured his invite by producing a birdie-eagle finish to claim the Asia-Pacific Amateur championship at Royal Wellington Golf Club in New Zealand and states Tiger Woods as his idol growing up. He’ll mix it with his fellow amateurs in the Crow’s Nest this week and tee off alongside 2011 Masters winner Charl Schwartzel and 2012 U.S. Open champ Webb Simpson over the first two rounds. He heads out with the two major winners at 12:54 local Thursday. Lin, who has committed to attend the University of Southern California in the fall, has teed it up twice with the pros in 2018. He shot 72-75 at the European Tour’s Maybank Championship and 75-78 in the Asian Tour’s Singapore Open, missing the cut in both. Expectations for this week are more about enjoying the experience.