Jaime Gonzalez (golfer)

Jaime Gonzalez is a Brazilian professional golfer. He is one of the few from his country to have enjoyed success on the international circuit.

Early life and amateur career

In 1954, Gonzalez was born in São Paulo to a golfing family. His father Mário won the Spanish Open as an amateur in 1947. Gonzalez had a lot of success an amateur, winning the Brazil Amateur Championship three times as a teenager. He would win the tournament one more time when he was in college.
Gonzalez attended Oklahoma State University in the United States and won the individual title at the 1974 Eisenhower Trophy.

Professional career

In 1977, Gonzalez turned professional and shortly thereafter represented Brazil twice in the World Cup, in 1978 and 1979.
Gonzalez earned membership on the PGA Tour for three seasons: in 1978, 1980, 1981. However, he did not have much success. His only top ten was a T-5 at the 1980 Sammy Davis Jr.-Greater Hartford Open.
In 1982, he turned to Europe where he had much more success. He played on the European Tour between 1982 and 1987 and won an event, the 1984 St. Mellion Timeshare TPC. In addition, a month after his victory, he was in the top-10 of the 1984 Open Championship after the first two rounds. He eventually finished T-28. His rank on the European Tour Order of Merit was #16 that year, his best ever.