LA ROMANA, Dominican Republic – Showing a calmness that belied his age, 16-year-old Paul Chaplet of Costa Rica – who will start his senior year of high school in a few weeks – shot a closing 2-under-par 70 on Casa de Campo’s Teeth of the Dog Sunday to edge Jorge Garcia and win the second Latin America Amateur Championship.
Chaplet finished the tournament at 3-under 285, one shot better than Venezuela’s Garcia, a freshman at Florida who shot 74 on Sunday. Chaplet’s surprising victory (he is ranked 832nd in the World Amateur Golf Ranking) delivers a coveted spot into April’s Masters at Augusta National Golf Club, where Chaplet will join fellow teen Jin Cheng (17) of China, who captured the Asia-Pacific Amateur in Hong Kong in October.