Julio César Zapata (born 22 July 1976) is an Argentine professional golfer.

Early life and career

Zapata was born in

Rafaela Rafaela () is a city in the province of Santa Fe, Argentina, about 96 km from the provincial capital. It is the head town of the Castellanos Department. It has a population of 99,150 per the . The city was established in 1881 by Guillerm ...

Santa Fe Province The Province of Santa Fe ( es, Provincia de Santa Fe, ) is a province of Argentina, located in the center-east of the country. Neighboring provinces are from the north clockwise Chaco (divided by the 28th parallel south), Corrientes, Entre R� ...

,European Tour Media Guide – Julio Zapata – Biography
/ref> and turned professional in 1997. In 2005, Zapata was second in the Argentina Tour rankings, winning the

Norpatagonico Open The Norpatagonico Open, or Abierto Norpatagónico, is one of the major professional golf tournaments in Argentina. Founded in 1969, it has always been held at the Palihue Golf Club in Bahía Blanca, Buenos Aires Province Buenos Aires (), offi ...

and finishing second in five other tournaments, including the

Argentine Masters The Argentine Masters or Torneo de Maestros was one of the most prestigious golf tournaments in Argentina, despite not having been played continuously since the inaugural event in 1961. It was always held at the Olivos Golf Club near Buenos Aires. ...

and the Coast Open. The following year, he won the Players Championship on the

Tour de las Américas The Tour de las Américas (TLA) was the principal men's professional golf tour throughout Latin America and the Caribbean from 2000 through to 2012 when it was superseded by PGA Tour Latinoamérica. History Top level tournament golf in Latin Ame ...

, and was third on that tour's Order of Merit. In 2008 he won the South Open, the last tournament of the 2008 TPG Tour. Following a successful season on the

Challenge Tour The Challenge Tour is the second-tier men's professional golf tour in Europe. It is operated by the PGA European Tour and, as with on the main European Tour and the European Senior Tour, some of the events are played outside Europe. History T ...

in 2007 with eight top ten finishes, highlighted by a second-place finish in Challenge of Ireland, he graduated to the

European Tour The European Tour (currently known as the DP World Tour for sponsorship reasons), legally the PGA European Tour is the leading men's professional golf tour in Europe. The organisation also operates the European Senior Tour (for players aged fi ...

in 2008. He finished 138th on the Order of Merit, with a best result of 11th in the

Omega European Masters The Omega European Masters is the Swiss stop on professional men's golf's European Tour, and in 2009 it became the first event in Europe to be co-sanctioned by the Asian Tour. Founded as the Swiss Open in 1923, the tournament was prefixed with E ...

, and as a result failed to maintain his playing privileges and dropped back down to the Challenge Tour for 2009, where he did enough to regain his European Tour card for 2011 by ending the season in 11th place on the rankings.European Tour Media Guide – Julio Zapata – Career record
/ref>

Professional wins (16)

TPG Tour wins (8)

Other Argentine wins (6)

* 2000 Parana Open * 2002 La Cumbre Grand Prix * 2003 Villa Mercedes Open * 2004 San Nicolas Grand Prix * 2005

* 2006

Tandil Open The Tandil Open was a golf tournament on the TPG Tour, the official professional golf tour in Argentina. First held in 2006, it was always held at the Valle de Tandil Golf Club, in Tandil, Buenos Aires Province Buenos Aires (), officially the ...

Other wins (2)

* 2006 TLA Players Championship (Mexico) * 2010 Santo Domingo Open (Chile)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Zapata, Julio Argentine male golfers PGA Tour Latinoamérica golfers European Tour golfers Sportspeople from Santa Fe Province Sportspeople from Rafaela 1977 births Living people