16-year-old Costa Rican heading to Masters

A SIXTEEN-YEAR -OLD Costa Rican golfer will  hecome the  second youngest playeer ever invited. play The Masters .

Paul Chaplet   earned the right  to play in the April event  with a surprise victory in the  Latin America Amateur Championship which ended Sunday, January 17,  at Teeth of The Dog, Casa de Campo, Dominican Republic. The youngest player in the tournament signed a card of 70 strokes (-2) for  a total of 285 (-3) beating out  one of the favorites, the Venezuelan Jorge Garcia who closed with 74 strokes.

With his  victory, Chaplet also won exemptions to play the final stages of qualifying for The Open Championship and the US Open this year. Finally, the champion will receive full exemptions to play The Amateur Championship, the US Amateur Championship, and all other USGA amateur championship for which he is  eligible.

García, earned a spot in the final stages of qualifying for the play The Open and the US Open in 2016.

“In 2012 I saw the Masters for the first time on on TV, when Bubba Watson won. Now I’m going to play there. It does not seem real,” said the winner, who started playing golf at age 10 influenced by his mother and is still a  high school student “I hope that some US university wants me,” he joked.

He will be the first player from Costa Rica to play Augusta National and the second youngest in the history of the Masters after Guan Tianlang in 2013 at 14 years and 5 months. “There are only 13 golf courses in Costa Rica, several of them 9 holes. It is a country where the course will have to grow as there are only 2,000 players and only 5 or 6 in the high competition, “