When Argentine mid-amateur Segundo Oliva Pinto plays in the Latin America Amateur Championship this week, he’ll be purely a golfer. His goals are to win this tournament and to one day turn professional.
When Oliva Pinto finishes playing, he’ll become an entrepreneur. One who wants to earn his MBA and help promote his and his brother’s barbeque products.
As of now, the 25-year-old University of Arkansas graduate says, there is no concrete plan for his future.
“I have a lot of different opportunities,” Oliva Pinto said, “but I’d like to be an entrepreneur and play golf, whether as an amateur or as a pro.”
Oliva Pinto enters his fifth LAAC, where he’s placed top-15 in a 108-player field every time. While he won’t be the favorite, he’s in good form. Last year, Oliva Pinto was a medalist in the U.S. Mid-Amateur and the Argentine Mid-Am champion.
Perhaps more importantly, the LAAC will be on home soil: Pilar Golf Club in Buenos Aires.
“I’ve been practicing like a pro amateur. I’ve been working on my game six to eight hours a day, six days a week.”
Segundo Oliva Pinto
“I would like to feel the support of the people,” Oliva Pinto said. “I always like a home crowd.”
Oliva Pinto was born in Córdoba, the same city as U.S. Open and Masters champion Ángel Cabrera. Despite this, Oliva Pinto didn’t grow up playing golf. In fact, he disliked the sport.
“By the time I was 13, I broke one too many rackets and my dad pulled me out of tennis,” Oliva Pinto said. “I didn’t like golf very much but I had nothing else to do so I started playing.”
Oliva Pinto says his proximity to Cabrera deepened his appreciation for golf, as his idol lived only five blocks away. The two often played together, and Cabrera provided the younger player with very simple advice.
“If you make enough birdies, you can play pro golf,” Cabrera said to him. “If you don’t make enough birdies, you won’t get it done.”
The birdies started to drop, and Oliva Pinto won multiple junior events in Latin America. He enrolled at UNC Wilmington for two years, winning an individual Colonial Athletic Association championship in 2019, before transferring to Arkansas and adding an SEC individual crown in 2021.
While at Arkansas, Oliva Pinto’s older brother, Tobias, visited and the two discovered their love of southern barbeque. Paired with their love of Argentinian asado, the South American barbecue tradition, the brothers decided to go into business together. In 2024, Hangry King, a company that sells BBQ kits, was born.
“We’re going to put an Argentinian touch on everything we do,” Oliva Pinto said.
The golfer is involved mainly on the social media and marketing side of Hangry King while his brother handles the business. He says he has plenty of time to practice golf, at least until February, when the company will start to sell its products.
“I’ve been practicing like a pro amateur,” Oliva Pinto said. “I’ve been working on my game six to eight hours a day, six days a week.”
Oliva Pinto hopes the practice accumulates into a good performance at the LAAC. Organized by Augusta National Golf Club, the USGA and the R&A, the tournament began in 2015. Its goal has been to grow the game of golf in Latin America. In this year’s field, 29 Latin American countries and territories are represented.
This includes 10 players from the host country, Argentina. In the history of the event, two Argentinians have triumphed: Abel Gallegos in 2020 and Mateo Fernández de Oliveira in 2023. Oliva Pinto and Fernández de Oliveira know each other quite well, as they were teammates at Arkansas for two years and friends well before that.
While the LAAC is an individual event, Oliva Pinto says his Argentinian compatriots share a sense of camaraderie as they seek to become the first Argentinian to win the event at home.
“Every single player wants to win himself,” Oliva Pinto said. “At least for the Argentinians, we feel like if I don’t win I hope somebody from my country wins.”
A victory at the LAAC would earn Oliva Pinto an invitation to the Masters and exemptions into the U.S. Open and the Open Championship.
“Everyone who plays in that event dreams about teeing it up at the Masters,” said Fernández de Oliveira, who achieved that dream in 2023. “It helped me go toe to toe with some of the best players in the world and realize where my game was at.”
Despite the great opportunity to take a step forward in his dream of turning pro, Oliva Pinto is committed to staying in the moment.
“My focus right now is on being Latin American champion and not on the majors,” he said.
He is, however, willing to look a little into the future. A celebration he can share with his family and friends.
“If I win,” Oliva Pinto said, “we’re definitely going out for drinks.”
Everett Munez