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UTRGV Men’s Golf Team alum Pedro Lamadrid. COURTESY PHOTOS

After placing 18th at the PTLA Qualifying Tournament in Argentina, UTRGV alum and former golf athlete Pedro Lamadrid will compete at the PGA Tour Latinoamérica starting March 2 in Mazatlán, Sinaloa, Mexico.

Lamadrid earned conditionally exempt status for the first half of the 2020 season and will make his way up throughout the rest of the tournament, according to the Latinoamérica website.

The alum graduated in May 2019 with a degree in mass communication and a minor in criminal justice.

Lamadrid is living in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, with his parents.

He was part of the golf program at UTRGV all four years of college, from 2015 to 2019.

During his 2018 spring season with the Vaqueros, he tied for second place at the Western Athletic Conference Championship with a three-round score of 214 after posting rounds of 74, 72, 68.

A year later, he was named to the All-WAC Second Team.

“Since I arrived [at UTRGV], my [golf Head] Coach, Philip Tate, challenged me since the beginning all the way to the end, so that brought a lot of … discipline, a lot of early wake-up calls,” Lamadrid said. “I need to thank him a lot.”

While working alongside Tate, Lamadrid learned not only how to become a better player, but also a better person.

“He’s a pretty easygoing person if you do the right things that he asks,” Lamadrid said. “But the way he teaches us how to prepare as a person outside the golf course is way more important than how to be a [player on] the golf course. It’s really important to relate with your coach and know what he wants to bring out of you in real life, not only in sports.”

Before UTRGV, Lamadrid competed in various tournaments, including the Amateur National Championship of Mexico and the Tour Professional Mexico Stage VI in Morelia.

“Everything started when I was a kid,” he said. “I used to play soccer and my dad was like, ‘I love soccer, but I want you to be able to play a sport that you’re good [at]. … You don’t depend on anybody to succeed.’”

Lamadrid said he believes his dad’s choice back then has gotten him to where he is today.

Tate said he is not surprised by everything Lamadrid has accomplished.

“I had the opportunity to coach Pedro for four years and he was outstanding all four years,” he said. “Each year he grew in confidence … in leadership ability … in personal accountability. He doesn’t look for anybody to blame nor does he look for anybody else to … as well. He simply takes this game on his shoulders and he says, ‘If I’m going to be good, I’m going to work at it and I’m going to outwork my opponent and I’m just going to be the best.’ So, I’m proud of his mindset, I’m proud of his dedication and I couldn’t be more excited to have a player from UTRGV, since its inception four-and-a-half years ago, to be playing with the PGA Tour card.”

Some of the things that stood out about Lamadrid were fire, passion, desire and “all the intangibles you can’t teach,” according to Tate.

“You can have a very talented individual, but if they don’t have that spark that you need, they’re almost uncoachable,” he said. “So, he had that spark, he had that internal fire. It helped that I pushed him and I think that it helped that we had a great relationship and that we worked well together on the golf course. But I think Pedro would have made it no matter what. … If he had to make a putt with my life on the line, I trust him to make it.”

Ironically, if he had one piece of advice for Lamadrid, Tate said it would be “not to put his life on the line.”

“He’s going to have a lot of chances,” he said. “He’s going to have a lot of opportunities and I hope that he doesn’t put too much pressure on himself to be successful in every single outing that he plays this year.”

Lamadrid said he is grateful to be playing against the best golfers in the world.

“It’s the start of a dream,” he said. “I have been battling injuries … workouts … bad rounds. It’s not like you need to prepare a week or a month; it’s your whole life and after a while, fruit is coming out of the tree and you start to succeed.”

The PGA Tour Latinoamérica could allow Lamadrid to qualify for the 2021 Korn Ferry Tour.

“I just want to go and enjoy the moment,” he said. “Keep my feet on the ground, be humble. Value where I am and be grateful [to] God and my family and my girlfriend and my coach.”