Meet Emiliano Grillo: The IMG Academy Phenom Contending for the PGA Championship

It’s rarely a good idea to begin anything in written form with an informal apology, but in the case of rising wunderkind Emiliano Grillo, it’s absolutely warranted.

Grillo, the latest in an impressive line of dauntless young players on the PGA Tour, enters the third round of the PGA Championship on Sunday in the penultimate group and two shots off the lead, despite the fact that he’s playing in only his fifth major.

Another fresh face who has rushed up the game’s pecking order like mercury in a sizzling summer thermometer, not much is broadly known about the Argentine, 23, a rookie on the U.S. tour in 2015-16. Since we aim to educate, here’s a fact that will stick in your head.

His wife’s name is Macarena.

With apologies for planting the melody from that infectiously annoying, 21-year-old ditty in anybody’s head, it would hardly be a shock if Grillo secures a spot in the game’s collective memory this week, too.

He’s no oldie, though. One of the fastest-rising players on the planet at world No. 37, Grillo has been on a career trajectory that seemed pointed toward a big-stage bow all along. Sooner, not later.

“His career has just sort of skyrocketed,” said David Leadbetter, one of the sport’s most established swing gurus. “It’s been an impressively steep incline.”

This week, after rounds of 66 and 67, he’ll start the rain-delayed third round on Sunday at Baltusrol Golf Club—weather permitting—alongside defending champion Jason Day and two shots behind co-leaders Jimmy Walker and Robert Streb.

When the rain finally subsides, @GrilloEmiliano has some math on his side this week: pic.twitter.com/45l1lCj9Bb

— Justin Ray (@JustinRayGC) July 30, 2016

Like many his age, Grillo wasted little time in carving a place for himself in the pantheon of notable young guns, winning his first start as a PGA Tour member, the Frys.com Open in October. He’s part of the high …

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