Roberto De Vicenzo's legacy endures at Visa Argentina Open

Nineteen years before suffering one of the Masters’ most agonizing defeats – missing a playoff in 1968 due to a scorecard error – Argentina golf hero Roberto De Vicenzo won the Visa Argentina Open at Olivos Golf Club.

The event’s rich history overall, and at Olivos, takes another step this week, as the 117 Visa Argentina Open presented by Macro will be played on the Korn Ferry Tour for the first time. It’s the fifth of 26 events on the Korn Ferry Tour schedule, with the top 30 at season’s end earning PGA TOUR membership – and the tournament champion earning a spot at The Open this summer.

De Vicenzo won this event nine times, spanning from 1944 to 1974, in a career that included 11 top-five finishes in major championships, highlighted by a 1967 win at The Open. His legacy is embedded through Argentina’s golf culture, of which the reimagined Visa Argentina Open is a significant part.

Now it’s part of golf’s premier pathway to the PGA TOUR, as well.

“This is on my bucket list, this tournament,” said Argentina’s Jorge Fernández Valdés, who finished No. 31 on last year’s Korn Ferry Tour season-long standings, one position shy of a TOUR card. “Every time I play, it’s one of my favorites. It’s in my home, and it’s in the same line of the majors. I would like to win a major, and I would like to win this tournament.”

The Visa Argentina Open, golf’s seventh oldest national open, will be played this week for the 117th time, with past winners including De Vicenzo, Jimmy Demaret, Lloyd Mangrum, Ángel Cabrera, Jim Furyk, Mark Calcavecchia, Craig Stadler and Tom Weiskopf. The event was first TOUR-sanctioned in 2012, as part of PGA TOUR Latinoamérica, and now assumes a spot on the Korn Ferry Tour calendar.

With elevated status comes elevated responsibility, and the Argentina Golf Association has spared no effort in tournament preparation, after the Korn Ferry Tour announced last July 5 that the Visa Argentina Open would be played on the circuit.

Olivos Golf Club, located on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, will host the Visa Argentina Open for the 12th time – the club first opened in 1928 and relocated to its current Luther Koontz design in 1952.

For the event's debut as a Korn Ferry Tour competition, course preparations began eight months out. Under the guidance of superintendent Ronnie Damm and a 26-member crew, the par-70 Olivos Golf Club transformed into a Korn Ferry Tour-level test, with rough measuring approximately 2.5 inches and special care on the bentgrass greens after severe January rains. (The club last hosted the Visa Argentina Open in 2016.)

Tournament buildout began Feb. 5, led by Argentina Golf Association Director of Operations Carlos Silva. A roughly 40-member operations team built out the Olivos grounds for the event, including nine on-course leaderboards and several tents and stands. The 18th hole’s grandstand will have room for 300 people; other grandstands will be featured on Nos. 1 and 15.

Ten thousand credentials were printed for the week, to be used by players, caddies, partners and more. In addition to food trucks, more than 15,000 bottles of beverages are on-hand.

This week's event will be broadcast Saturday and Sunday on the Argentina Golf Association (AAG)’s YouTube page, with two hours of coverage each day.

It’s a big-time stage, and Argentina’s golf community has embraced it.

“The Visa Argentina Open presented by Macro has a great history as one of the oldest national golf opens in the world and we are delighted to have it become part of the Korn Ferry Tour family,” said Korn Ferry Tour President Alex Baldwin. “The tournament has been a key piece on the PGA TOUR Latinoamérica calendar since its creation in 2012 and is recognized by players and fans as one of the best tournaments … Every time you play for a spot in a major championship, it makes the tournament even more meaningful. We are happy to continue elevating this championship and present a country like Argentina on the Korn Ferry Tour.”

“It is a great pleasure to return to the Olivos Golf Club,” added Argentina Golf Association President Andrés Schönbaum. “The Olivos course is one of the best and most competitive in the country … without a doubt a great stage for the players and the public. I would like also to highlight the great relationship we have had with the PGA TOUR for more than 10 years and the enormous work and effort we have made together to move from the PGA TOUR Latinoamérica to the Korn Ferry Tour."

Prior to American Kent Bulle’s win in 2016, the most recent Visa Argentina Open contested at Olivos came in 2003. Argentina’s Rodolfo González earned the title in dramatic fashion, making birdie on the final hole of regulation to force a playoff and then winning on the third extra hole.

“I touched De Vicenzo's hand before my third shot so that he would transfer some of his magic to me,” González said of his final approach in regulation, to 5 feet for the tying birdie. “It must have worked because I landed the ball really close.

“I dedicate this victory to Roberto De Vicenzo who is my mentor in golf. All I am, I owe it to him.”

De Vicenzo is a common thread around these parts, and although he passed away in 2017, his spirit lives on at the Visa Argentina Open.