Juan Álvarez, recognized as Uruguay’s best golfer, was shot Monday in an attempted robbery. Alvarez was near his home, in Montevideo, and was traveling on a motorcycle when he was approached by unknown assailants who tried to take his vehicle. When they did not succeed they shot him several times.
When police arrived they found Alvarez lying on the ground next to his motorcycle and bloodied.
Once at the Pasteur hospital, the doctors found that the sportsman had a bullet wound in the thorax, with an entrance and exit wound, and another of the same characteristic in one of his legs. He was discharged early yesterday morning.
Alvarez told the police that he was riding his motorcycle when he was surprised by two men who, without saying a word, shot him several times. They then escaped.
In January, Alvarez improved a weak performance in the Latin Americas Amateur Championship and with 278 strokes, 10 under par in the 72 holes of the tournament played in Peru, he stayed to celebrate with his coaches. With this title in Lima, the Uruguayan earned the right to participate in the European Amateur Championship 2016.
Álvarez gets up every day at seven in the morning, leaves his home in Casabó, and rides his motorcycle across the city to train in Punta Carretas until the sun sets.
That path led him to become at the age of 22 the best amateur golfer in South America and the 36th in the world, another unprecedented feat for the local sport.
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