The Latin America Amateur Championship

Founded by The R&A, The Masters and the USGA, the Latin America Amateur Championship, or LAAC, was inaugurated with a view to developing the game in Central and South America and the Caribbean.

It followed the success of the Asia-pacific Amateur Championship (AAC) that has been run since 2009 by The R&A and The Masters, together with the Asia Pacific Golf Confederation. That event has proved hugely effective in growing the game in the Asia Pacific region, producing inspirational champions like Hideki Matsuyama.

The incredible prizes on offer at the LAAC have, in just eight years of its existence, inspired and incentivised players and federations in the region to focus their efforts and develop their elite programmes.

Since it was first contested in Buenos Aires in 2015, the 72-hole stroke-play tournament has produced great champions and a number of top players.

Joaquin Niemann of Chile, who won the LAAC in 2018 on home soil in Santiago, is perhaps the best-known graduate. Others to have played in the event include Sebastian Munoz, 2022 US PGA 54-hole leader Mito Pereira and Alvaro Ortiz.

In this year’s event, contested at the Grand Reserve Golf Club in Puerto Rico, Argentina’s Mateo Fernandez de Oliveira ran out as a worthy winner, finishing on a superb four-round total of 23-under-par.

As LAAC champion, Fernandez de Oliveira received an invitation to compete in the 2023 Masters at Augusta. He automatically qualified for The 151st Open at Royal Liverpool and, a prize on offer for the first time this season, he earned a spot in the 123rd US Open at Los Angeles Country Club.

He also received full exemptions into the 128th Amateur Championship, the US Amateur Championship and any other USGA amateur championship for which he was eligible.

Mexico’s Luis Carrera closed with a 67 to finish in second place, four shots back. As runner-up, he received an exemption into the final stages of qualifying for the 151st Open and the 123rd US Open.

Next year’s LAAC will be held at the Santa Maria Golf Club in Panama from January 18-21.