Kristoffer Ventura’s Tenacity Brings Him Home

PLAYA DEL CARMEN, MEXICO | With the sun drenching the Riviera Maya behind him, Kristoffer Ventura answered a string of questions in Spanish and then sat down in a director’s chair for a quiet moment alone. If you had only walked onto the patio when the English portion of the conversation began a few moments later, Ventura could have fooled you into thinking he was born in Peoria, Ill., instead of Puebla, Mexico.

That’s the type of mixed accent you get when you have lived in three countries, each for at least a half a dozen years, and visited around 30 of them. For this week’s Mayakoba Golf Classic, the 24-year-old former Oklahoma State standout who is six starts into his rookie season on the PGA Tour is returning to the origin of his story. Ventura didn’t grow up close to the floating palm trees of Playa del Carmen – it would take about 19 hours to drive to what was once his hometown on the outskirts of Mexico City – but he did spend the first 12 years of his life in the country. It’s where his father, Carlos, a Mexican veterinaria...