Puerto Plata Golf Club will welcome 152 players to its northern Dominican Republic course for the 51st edition of the Copa Rotativa golf tournament, starting Saturday, August 29.
The two-weekend competition opens with 64 local golfers taking to the tee at 10:00 a.m. for the members' tournament, which is dedicated this year to honored guest Fernando Ortega Brugal.
The tournament is one of the premier sporting events in Puerto Plata, a coastal city on the northern coast of the Dominican Republic. Juan Antonio Morales, the president of Puerto Plata Golf Club, expressed satisfaction with the growth of the tournament in recent years, stating that the competition has successfully recovered the splendor it enjoyed during the 1990s.
Morales also praised the condition of the playing grounds ahead of the event, which concludes on Saturday, September 5. He stated that the course was in excellent shape, crediting staff member Américo for carrying out extensive maintenance work that restored high-quality golfing conditions to the facility.
Tournament format and player eligibility
The competition will be contested under a stroke play format, with final standings determined by the total cumulative strokes recorded by each player across two rounds. In stroke play golf, competitors must count every stroke taken over the entire course, making it a comprehensive test of consistency compared to match play formats.
Organizers confirmed that the tournament is open to club members and competitors holding an official handicap between 0 and 24. Golf handicaps measure a player's potential ability, allowing golfers of different skill levels to compete on an equal footing based on standardized scoring metrics.
Defending champion targets historic title
Defending champion Jorge Fernández enters the tournament aiming to become the first player in the event's history to win back-to-back Copa Rotativa titles. Fernández claimed victory in the 50th edition of the tournament after completing his rounds with a total score of 202 strokes.
Fernández stated that he was fully prepared to defend his championship and hoped to write his name onto an exclusive list of multi-time winners in Puerto Plata golf history. He added that the course was in excellent condition and that participants were eager for the competition to begin.
A victory would make Fernández only the sixth player in the history of Puerto Plata Golf Club to win two Copa Rotativa trophies. Mayreni Bournigal became the first golfer to achieve the feat when he won titles in 1977 and 1986.
The elite group of two-time champions also includes Leonardo Bueno, who won in 1990 and 1995; Manuel Durán, victorious in 1989 and 2016; Jorge Medina Sr., who took titles in 1996 and 2012; and Jorge Medina Jr., champion in 2015 and 2017.
