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Abel Gallegos Bio - (C) GOLFstats Inc. 2020

Gallegos is the only golfer in his family, and his home golf course is a nine-hole layout called Las Mulitas or Little Mules. The club, which is outside of Veinticinco de Mayo and 120 miles southwest of Buenos Aires, only has 45 members and no other golf courses nearby. While he was a junior playing Las Mulitas, he would say his biggest dream was to play in the Masters, which he will fulfill this year.

When Gallegos was 15 in 2018, he traveled to Scotland to play in The Junior Open, which was played on the Eden Course at St. Andrews, and he finished T-5th, four strokes behind winner Martin Vorster. Gallegos birdied three of the first four holes in the final round to get the lead but ended his round with a double-bogey and bogey.

Going into the Latin American Amateur Championship played at Mexico's Mayakoba Resort, it would be the first time that Gallegos played in the Championship. He was 460th in the World Amateur Ranking and, other than winning the Argentinian Junior in 2019, hadn't played much outside of Argentinian other than the trip to Scotland in 2018 and a trip to Florida in 2019 when he finished T-6th in the Junior Orange Bowl and T-48th in the AJGA's Junior Players at TPC Sawgrass. He also made a trip to Japan in June of 2019 to play in the Toyota Junior World Cup, where he finished T-4th.

The week before the LAAC, Gallegos played in the Junior Orange Bowl International and was in contention going into the final round, but shot 79 to finish 6th, nine strokes behind winner Andrey Borges Zavier. At the LAAC, Gallegos put together rounds of 73-70-70-67 to defeat Aaron Terrazas by four strokes. His final-round 67 was tied for the best round of the day as he made sure to shake off his closing 79 from the previous week. Since the LAAC's inception in 2015, no golfer from Argentina had won the title, so it was an important accomplishment for Gallegos. With the victory, Gallegos earned an invitation to play in the Masters and the British Open, and he intended to turn professional after playing at St. Georges. With COVID-19 causing havoc, Gallegos had to alter his plans and has stayed an amateur to play in the Masters. Since the LAAC win, Gallegos was able to play in the Western Amateur, not making it out of stroke play, and at the U.S. Amateur held at Bandon Dunes where he made it out of stroke play but lost 1-up to Stewart Hagestad in the first round of match play.

2021 Notes: Gallegos shot a final-round 3-under 68, the only sub-70 score of the day, to win the Azalea Invitational in his return to the Country Club of Charleston.

Amateur events played in 2021

Week Event Place

23 Dogwood Invitational Cut

16 Terra Cotta Invitational Cut

11 Azalea Invitational Win

5 Jones Cup Invitational T-47

1 Junior Orange Bowl International 4

Amateur events played in 2020

Week Event Place

46 Masters Cut

44 Azalea Invitational T-39

33 U.S. Amateur Final 64 (T-33)

31 Western Amateur Championship Cut

11 Junior invitational at Sage Valley 15

8 Argentine Amateur Final 32

3 Latin America Amateur Winner (T-17)

2 Junior Orange Bowl International