Mid-amateur Esteve qualifies for Puerto Rico Open, misses cut

While the majority of the country’s top mid-amateurs were competing in the Gasparilla Invitational this past weekend, Jeronimo Esteve had a little bit different competition. The 37-year-old amateur was among four Puerto Ricans in the field at the Puerto Rico Open, the PGA Tour event opposite this week’s WGC Mexico Championship.

Esteve, who is the general manager of a Honda and Hyundai car dealership in Windermere, Fla., qualified into the Tour event earlier in February. He did that by winning a Puerto Rico Golf Association Stroke Play Series event at TPC Dorado Beach.

Normally, the Latin America Amateur Championship is firmly on his winter competition calendar, but Esteve missed the event for the first time ever in January as he and his wife awaited the birth of their third child.

In Puerto Rico, Esteve put up rounds of 75-76 at Cocoa Beach Golf and Country Club. His 7-over total left him outside the 36-hole cut.

“Golf is hard, thank God I sell cars,” Esteve wrote in a Facebook post after the cut fell. “Some days you are the windshield, some days you see the bug.”

Esteve’s game seemed to be in good form entering 2019 when he contended at the Orlando International Amateur late in December. He finished an eventual fourth that week.

Esteve also qualified for the Puerto Rico Open in 2015.