Through decades of heartbreak and tears, Marcelo Rozo finally realizes PGA Tour dream

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – The steam that had accumulated on the shower door provided the perfect canvas for some inspiration. And so, Marcelo Rozo, just hours before the biggest round of his life, took his finger and spelled out the goal:

PGA Tour member ‘26.

“I was telling myself that it was going to happen,” said Rozo, a 36-year-old from Bogota, Colombia, whose foray into the final stage of PGA Tour Q-School marked well over a decade chasing the big show. “It was my day, and I was built for this, that I’ve worked literally my entire life for this moment.”

On Sunday afternoon, Rozo added the exclamation point, a clutch par on the last at TPC Sawgrass’ Dye’s Valley course capping a gritty 1-under 69 in windy conditions and securing Rozo his first PGA Tour card.

When Rozo’s short putt disappeared, erasing years of heartbreak, the journeyman delivered a powerful uppercut as everything poured out of him. Amid a flurry of hugs, Rozo briefly looked up, tears glistening in the setting sun, before pulling the brim of his hat over his eyes. This one was for his late grandfather, Vicente Falaschini, an Argentine golf professional and course designer who served as Rozo’s first teacher; Falaschini died in 2004, when Rozo was 14 years old. It was also for Mateo, Rozo’s oldest brother and aspiring college golfer whose discipline and fun-loving spirit – he was a big dancer, too – inspired his little brother, who was just 11 when Mateo went in for nose surgery to alleviate some allergies. He developed an infection in the operating room and died three months later, just days before his 20th birthday.

After Mateo’s death, Rozo’s other brother, Juan, quit the game. But Marcelo played on, first on the Latin junior circuit, and then D-II Lynn University before turning professional in 2012. Rozo won three times on PGA Tour Latinoamerica, including the 2013 Argentina Open, and earned Korn Ferry Tour status for the first time in 2019.

Though Rozo never lost KFT status, a serious wrist injury nearly derailed his entire career. After four months of unsuccessful rehab, Rozo had surgery in December 2022 to repair a triangular fibrocartilage complex tear in his left wrist. It took Rozo nine months to hit his first chip, and the pain was unbearable.

“It’s really a blessing that I’m playing,” Rozo said. “I love this game, but I thought I was never going to come back.”

During his time away, Rozo and his wife, Manuela, whom he met in middle school after Manuela’s family moved to Bogota, welcomed their first child, a son named Lorenzo. With a growing family, Rozo contemplated changing jobs. He got his real estate license and dabbled in broadcasting. But Manuela wouldn’t let him give up.

“She’s my rock,” Rozo said. “There were a couple years there where she took everything on her shoulders when golf wasn’t working out for me.”

Rozo returned to competition in late 2023, but he only managed to make eight cuts and finished No. 128 on the KFT points list last year. It was then that he phoned his countryman and idol, Camilo Villegas, a five-time PGA Tour winner. Villegas is from Manuela’s hometown, Medellín, and now lives in Jupiter, Florida, not too far from Rozo in Boca Raton. With Villegas’ council, Rozo pushed ahead, this time ending No. 45 in points to secure his full KFT card for 2026.

“He just kept believing,” Villegas said. “At the end of the day, that’s the message for everybody; you’ve just got to keep believing.”

Villegas, who practiced with Rozo in the weeks leading up to final stage, was also Q-School roommates with Rozo as they stayed at the home of another Colombian tour pro, two-time PGA Tour winner Nico Echavarria, who was on his honeymoon. Having witnessed Rozo’s form up close, Villegas knew he’d perform well. Rozo stormed into Q-School contention with a second-round 64 on Friday at Dye’s Valley, followed by a late birdie barrage on Saturday at Sawgrass Country Club, where he birdies Nos. 15-17 to card 65 and grab a share of the 54-hole lead with Ben Kohles. But on the morning of the final round, Villegas could sense Rozo’s anxiousness before he left for an earlier tee time.

“I was already stretching,” Rozo recalled, “and he came down and just told me, ‘Hey, you’re going to feel it’s going to get away from you at some point. For sure, it’s going to happen. Just know that you’ve just got to keep fighting until the end.’”

After chatting with Villegas and his coaches, still something wasn’t right.

“I’m like, man, I’ve got something – I’ve got some type of knot here in my chest,” Rozo said. “I’ve got to let it out.”

He then went upstairs and cried.

“Emotions were running,” Rozo said. “I told myself, you have to see the emotions, recognize them, hug them, and then just move on because they’re there.”

Rozo’s mind wandered to the future all day. Each time, though, he looked down at his feet and said to himself, bring it back. Also ignoring the leaderboards, he couldn’t see himself slipping with two bogeys and no birdies on his front nine. But bringing it back meant birdieing Nos. 10, 14 and 15, the latter on a deft approach in a difficult wind to a few feet. When Rozo walked off the par-5 16th with a disappointing par, he knew he had to know where he stood. He was one shot inside a potential playoff.

Speaking of playoffs, Rozo’s biggest brush with extras came on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2019, when he lost to a young pro from Texas by the name of Scottie Scheffler. Had Rozo won that day, he likely would’ve graduated to the PGA Tour.

“He crossed my mind…,” Rozo said. “I’m glad I get to see him again.”

Rozo could feel his heart pumping on the final tee as he stepped up to hit what he called, “The hardest tee shot I’ve ever hit in my career.” He went with 5-wood, that way if he missed, he’d still have a shot. He played away from the water left, missing the fairway right and clipping a tree branch, then just tried to push something up around the green to give himself a chance. He did better than that, hitting the green, his par putt as stress-free as possible considering the moment.

“It was probably the hardest par I’ve ever made in my life,” Rozo said.

Manuela, who had driven up Sunday morning with Lorenzo to surprise her husband, was sitting on the back lawn behind TPC Sawgrass’ sprawling clubhouse, watching the broadcast on her phone. Villegas, who missed a short birdie on the last earlier and ended up a shot out of the playoff, had plopped down next to them as well. When Rozo clinched his card, Manuela screamed, and as he approached scoring in a cart, Manuela was jumping up and down as Lorenzo played with a stuffed Mickey Mouse doll. All three then embraced in a hug.

“As much as that short putt I missed on the last hurts, I think watching my peers accomplish their dreams and having this be a special day for Marcelo was pretty cool,” Villegas said. ““I was pretty emotional. I had tears in my eyes.”

He wasn’t alone. Rozo choked up several times during his post-round interview. Asked what he knew about the PGA Tour, Rozo, who’s only logged four starts there in his career, said he didn’t know much, only that he wanted to play on it. The journey has been tough, but realizing his dream made everything worthwhile.

His grandfather and brother Mateo weren’t able to witness this breakthrough, but Lorenzo did.

Rozo hopes his son, someday, takes away this:

“Nothing in life comes easy, but if you work, you can achieve anything you dream of.”

And as Sunday proved, it helps to write it down.