R&A and USGA announce Latin America Amateaur Championship

The R&A, The Masters Tournament and the United States Golf Association (USGA) announced today the formation of the Latin America Amateur Championship (LAAC), a new amateur golf event aimed at stimulating growth and inspiring even greater interest in the game throughout South America, Central America, Mexico and the Caribbean.

The Founding Partners – with cooperation from the Argentina Golf Association, the 2015 host golf association – will support all aspects in the organisation and execution of the event.

The champion of the inaugural LAAC and all future winners of the event will receive an invitation to compete in the Masters Tournament, beginning in 2015. In addition, the winner and the runner(s)-up will be exempt into the final stages of qualifying for The Open Championship and U.S. Open Championship. Finally, the champion will receive full exemptions into The Amateur Championship, U.S. Amateur Championship and any other USGA amateur championship for which he is eligible.

“Supporting the game’s continuous growth has been a responsibility taken very seriously throughout the 260-year history of The R&A,” said Peter Dawson, The R&A’s Chief Executive. “Having been involved in this region of the world for many years, we understand the potential impact a championship of this stature can have on golfers with dreams of competing at the highest level. We are once again delighted to embark on such a worthwhile opportunity with both the Masters and the USGA.”

Invitations for the championship will be sent to the leading players from the 27 IOC-recognised countries and territories from this region that are current members of the International Golf Federation. Each country/territory will be automatically provided two positions, which will be filled by their highest-ranked players from the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR) as of November 1, 2014. If there are only one or no players from a given country/territory in the WAGR, the national golf association will nominate one or two players accordingly, for approval by the LAAC Executive Committee. The remainder of the field will be filled by taking the next highest ranked players from the WAGR with the maximum number of players allowed from a country/territory being six. The only exception is for the host country, which will be allowed a total of 10 players.

For more information about the Latin America Amateur Championship, please visit www.LAACgolf.com.