The Orlando International Amateur has deep roots in international golf. It was organized by two men who started as opponents but crossed the ocean to become not just teammates but brothers-in-law.

Stories such as these drive home the realization that the golf community is small and truly global.

The friendship between Maxence De Craecker of Belgium and Tiago Rodrigues of Portugal goes back nearly a decade. They were young men playing the amateur tournament circuit in Europe for their respective national teams when Belgium and Portugal were pitted against each other at the 2010 European Amateur Team Championship. For the record, Tiago won the match that July day at Osterakers Golf Club in Sweden.

“We didn’t keep in touch, but the golf community is small,” De Craecker said. “When you compete at a good level, you know the other players.”

De Craecker went on to play golf for Rollins College in Orlando. He was dating a woman, Sofia, who would later become his wife. Rodrigues would arrive a few years later and also land a spot on the golf team. It was on the Rollins campus that he met Sofia’s sister, Vivian, to whom he is now married.

“There is that relationship,” De Craecker said of their family ties, “but there is also a common passion (for golf), which is fun for us to do together.”

The seed for the Orlando International Amateur was planted simply by a desire to create an event that was a mainstay on the amateur golf calendar. It grew from a conversation about a lack of international events in a golf hub like Orlando. Knowing that several other high-level amateur events were contested in Florida during the winter months, De Craecker and Rodrigues thought they could create a desirable stop on that circuit.

“There is no golf capital, but Orlando is kind of the unofficial golf capital in the world with the PGA Show, the PGA Tour events, all the PGA Tour players living here,” De Craecker said. “That’s why we thought there was a place for this here.”