Danny Balin, the Champion of the 2015 Guatemala Stella Artois Open. Photo Credit: Google Images & PGA TOUR Latinoamerica.
As I am currently reliving the 100-day, 14-country, 18,471-mile ‘Journey to Olympic Golf,’ I was saving Danny Balin for JTOG Day No. 70 because that was the day I met him in Lima, Peru. But the word is out as of yesterday when he won his first professional golf tournament, the Guatemala Stella Artois Open on the PGA TOUR Latinoamérica. His victory came at The La Reunion Golf Resort & Residences on the Fuego Maya Course in Antigua, Guatemala, another stop on my odyssey to Rio.
Well the word was already out well before his first professional win if you know Danny Balin or someone that knows him! He is a great guy and I can attest to that! I was making my way down the west coast of South America with a stop in Lima. I met a guy named Billy Gorbitz who took me over the ridge to see his club called La Planicie and have some cerviche. That day they happened to be hosting the grand finale event for the Development Tour of the PGA TOUR Latinoamérica. I looked at the scoreboard and saw only one American—you guessed it, Danny Balin!
Later that evening I am taking the elevator down at the Hotel & Spa Golf Los Incas and a guy gets on heading down to the lobby to pick up a pizza. I introduced myself and he told me he was there competing in a golf tournament. I told him that he must be Danny Balin and he was!
CLICK here for the Full Video Interview with Danny Balin from November 2013 in Lima, Peru.
Interviewing Danny Balin in November, 2013 in Lima, Peru.
He granted me an interview and though as impressive as that was there was more to follow that made me an immediate Danny Balin fan! Along the way on the Journey to Rio I began to accumulate golf books. First at Glen Echo, then at the Golf Club of Mexico and another one about the first 100 years of golf in Mexico. Without Torch and her trunk my backpack and roller bag were starting to buldge. Golf books are heavy! A few days later I was flying out of Lima to Santiago and there I met Danny again and explained my situation. Without hesitation he offered to take my books back to the States for me. What a guy that I just met to offer to be a book mule for me!
Danny Balin’s name on the board at La Planicie CC, now at the top of the leaderboard at the 2015 Guatemala Stella Artois Open!
At that time (November 2013), Danny’s claim to fame was competing in four straight PGA Championships, having qualified through the PGA Professional National Championship. Even more impressive is that he picked up golf in the last year in high school and never had an amateur career. But he made up for that with all he has accomplished in the last 10 years, including being a 3-time Met Section Player of the Year after coming out of the Professional Golf Management Program at Penn State.
A Michael Breed protege? Watch the video and you decide!
In addition to the four majors he competed in the 2014 Puerto Rico Open. In addition to the 29 PGA TOUR Latinoamérica events, Danny has competed in 8 PGA TOUR CANADA events. If my math is right, his win in Guatemala came in only his 42nd professional event at age 33 after a little over a decade of preparing for and going after his dream.
It is exciting and inspiring to see a guy following and living his dream!
I agree with Danny, the sky is the limit!
