Rafael Alarcón (born 5 August 1958) is a Mexican

professional golfer A professional golfer is somebody who receives payments or financial rewards in the sport of golf that are directly related to their skill or reputation. A person who earns money by teaching or playing golf is traditionally considered a "golf pr ...

who played on the PGA Tour.

Early life

Alarcón was born and raised in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, playing golf from young age at Guadalajara Country Club, one of the oldest golf clubs in Mexico.

Amateur career

He played on two NCAA Division I Championship winning teams,

1976 Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 Phila ...

and

1978 Events January * January 1 – Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, crashes off the coast of Bombay, killing 213. * January 5 – Bülent Ecevit, of Republican People's Party, CHP, forms the new government of Turkey (42nd go ...

, and was a three-time All- American while attending Oklahoma State University. In 1976 he lost in a playoff to

Jim Nelford James Cameron Nelford (born June 28, 1955) is a Canadian professional golfer, who has played on the PGA Tour. He has also been a golf commentator for ESPN. Nelford was born in Vancouver, British Columbia. He won the 1973 B.C. High School go ...

at the Canadian Amateur Championship. In 1977, he was runner-up at the Western Amateur, losing in the final. Three years after his playoff loss at the Canadian Amateur, he won the championship at Brantford Golf Club, Ontario, and another important amateur tournament in North America, the Southern Amateur at the Country Club of North Carolina, Pinehurst. Alarcón represented Mexico three times in the Eisenhower Trophy, the first time in 1974 at age 16. In

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning System time epoch begins at 00:00 UTC. * January 9 – ...

, at Pinehurst Country Club, North Carolina, the Mexican team finished 9th.

Professional career

Alarcón turned professional after the 1980 amateur season and played in North and South America, Europe and Asia. In 1981, he finished runner-up to Tim Simpson at the unofficial European Tour approved event Cacharel World Under-25 Championship in Nimes, France. His first professional win abroad came in 1984 at the Indian Open on the

Asia Golf Circuit The Asia Golf Circuit was the principal men's professional golf tour in Southeast Asia from the early 1960s through to the mid-late 1990s. The tour was founded in 1961 as the Far East Circuit. The first series of five tournaments was held in 1962 ...

. Alarcón qualified for the 1983 PGA Tour season. Alarcón never won on the PGA Tour, to match Cesar Sanudo and Victor Regalado, who, at the time of Alarcon's active career, were the only native Mexican golfers to have done so. Alarcón's best finish was tied 19th at the 1997 Kemper Open. Two years in a row,

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

and

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...

, Alarcón finished runner-up in a tournament on the American second-tier Nike Tour, later named the Korn Ferry Tour, namely the Nike Monterrey Open, played in his home country of Mexico. In 1995, winner Stuart Appleby needed seven extra playoff holes to beat Alarcón. Alarcón won the 1990 Mexican PGA Championship and led the Mexican PGA Tour in earnings 1989−1992. Alarcón represented Mexico seven times in the World Cup and twice in the Dunhill Cup. In the

1995 World Cup of Golf The 1995 World Cup of Golf took place 9–12 November at the Mission Hills Golf Club in Shenzhen, Dongguan, Guangdong, China. It was the 41st World Cup. The tournament was a 72-hole stroke play team event with each team consisting of two players f ...

at Mission Hills Golf Club in Shenzhen, China, the Mexico team of Alarcón and Esteban Toledo finished tied 10th, eight strokes from second place. On 1 December 1997, Alarcón won the Compaq World Putting Championship by Dave Pelz at the Bonnett Creek Golf Club at Walt Disney World in

Orlando, Florida Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County, Florida, Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Greater Orlando, Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, acco ...

. He beat

Spike McRoy Robert Lynn "Spike" McRoy Jr. (born May 20, 1968) is an American professional golfer who has played on the PGA Tour and the Nationwide Tour. Early years and education McRoy was born and raised in Huntsville, Alabama. He got his nickname ''Spike ...

on the second sudden-death playoff hole, winning a first prize of $250,000. Second prize was $50,000. At 43 years of age, in 2001, Alarcon won the

Venezuela Open The Venezuela Open or Abierto de Venezuela is a men's professional golf tournament. It has only been staged intermittently since 1957, 2019 being the 35th edition of the event. Al Geiberger, Art Wall Jr., David Graham, Roberto De Vicenzo and Tony ...

on the Tour de las Américas.

Private life, awards

After mainly retiring from competition play in 1997, Alarcón made a few tournament appearances in Latin America and worked as a coach for

Lorena Ochoa Lorena Ochoa Reyes (; born 15 November 1981) is a Mexican former professional golfer who played on the U.S.-based LPGA Tour from 2003 to 2010. She was the top-ranked female golfer in the world for 158 consecutive and total weeks (both are LPGA ...

. When Ochoa, also a Guadalajara native, was 11 years old, she approached Alarcón and asked him to coach her. During his time as her coach, she won 27 LPGA Tour titles, including two

majors Jonathan Michael Majors (born September 7, 1989)Majors in is an American actor. He rose to prominence after starring in the independent feature film ''The Last Black Man in San Francisco'' (2019). In 2020, he garnered wider notice for portraying ...

and reached number one on the Women's World Golf Rankings, before she retired at 28 years of age. After her retirement, he has been coaching at Lorena Ochoa's Golf Academy. Alarcón also worked as a golf course designer, together with Carter Morrish at Alarcon Morrish Golf Course Design. Alarcón was appointed Jalisco State Golfer of the Century. He was awarded the National Prize for Sports, received on 20 November 2009 from the President of Mexico during a ceremony at the official presidential residence.

Amateur wins

*1976 Mexican Junior *1977 Mexican Amateur *1978 Mexican Amateur *1979 Canadian Amateur Championship, Southern Amateur *1980 Big Eight Individual

Professional wins (3)

Asia Golf Circuit wins (1)

Tour de las Américas wins (1)

Other wins (1)

*1990 Mexican PGA Championship

Playoff record

Nike Tour playoff record (0–1)

Results in major championships

CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" = tied
''Note: Alarcón only played in the U.S. Open.''

Team appearances

Amateur * Eisenhower Trophy (representing Mexico):

1974 Major events in 1974 include the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis and the resignation of United States President Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal. In the Middle East, the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War determined politics; f ...

Professional * World Cup (representing Mexico):

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phil ...

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

* Dunhill Cup (representing Mexico):

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peace ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Alarcón, Rafael Mexican male golfers Oklahoma State Cowboys golfers PGA Tour golfers Sportspeople from Guadalajara, Jalisco 1958 births Living people 20th-century Mexican people