Mingbo Jiang hangs on to win Orlando International Amateur
Mingbo Jiang of China carded rounds of 72-66-70 to finish 7-under and win the 2024 Orlando International Amateur at Mission Inn Resort, the El Campeon Course, in Howey In The Hills, Fla., by a narrow one-shot over
Octave Bailo of France.
Jiang recorded a second-round 5-under 66 at Los Colinas to jump out to a two-shot lead as inclement weather suspended the second round. Play resumed on Monday morning at 7:30 a.m. to finish round two, and round three started at 9:30 a.m. ET. on El Campeon.
Jiang was able to finish his second round on time and record six birdies to just one bogey. In the final round, Jiang recorded five birdies and three bogeys. Jiang made a bogey on No. 17 to cut the lead to just one shot but made a clutch par on No. 18 to hang on to win.
Jiang finished T26 at the 2023 Orlando International Amateur.
Bailo carded rounds of 70-71-68 to get to 6-under and finish in second place in solo. He birdied holes No. 14 and 15 to get to just one shot back of Jiang, but he made three pars to end the championship and was unable to close the gap fully. Bailo won the 2024 Campeonato de Barcelona.
Stefan Jacobs and Palmer Haynes finished T3 at 4-under, and Yuqi Liu finished in solo fifth place at 2-under to round out the top five. Eight golfers finished T6 at 1-under and six shots back Jiang, including Arkansas standout John Daly II.
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.”
ABOUT THE
Orlando International Amateur
The Orlando International Amateur Championship is
an annual golf tournament gathering high-level
amateur golfers from the United States of America
and abroad. 54-hole stroke play championship,
playing 18 holes per day.
Open to low-handicap amateurs, players who play
college golf, players who have qualified for any of
the
current year's USGA or R&A championships, and
those who have the recommendation of their
country’s Federation or Association.
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