PGA Tour Latinoamérica is a third level

professional golf tour Professional golf tours are the means by which otherwise unconnected professional golf tournaments are organised into a regular schedule. There are separate tours for men and women; most are based in a specific geographical region, although some to ...

formed in 2012 and operated by the

PGA Tour The PGA Tour (stylized in all capital letters as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in the United States and North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also k ...

. It was formed in concert with the now defunct

Tour de las Américas The Tour de las Américas (TLA) was the principal men's professional golf tour throughout Latin America and the Caribbean from 2000 through to 2012 when it was superseded by PGA Tour Latinoamérica. History Top level tournament golf in Latin Ameri ...

. Executives from the Tour de las Américas became employees of the new tour. PGA Tour Latinoamérica is one of a number of lower-tier tours that factor into the

Official World Golf Ranking The Official World Golf Ranking is a system for rating the performance level of professional golfers. It was started in 1986. The rankings are based on a player's position in individual tournaments (i.e. not pairs or team events) over a "rolli ...

, awarding a minimum of six points to the winner and points to the top six plus ties. The top five in the tour's Order of Merit earn status on the

Korn Ferry Tour The Korn Ferry Tour is the developmental tour for the U.S.-based PGA Tour, and features professional golfers who have either not yet reached the PGA Tour, or who have done so but then failed to win enough FedEx Cup points to stay at that level. Th ...

, with the money leader being fully exempt. The Order of Merit Winner also receives the

Roberto De Vicenzo Roberto De Vicenzo (14 April 1923 – 1 June 2017) was a professional golfer from Argentina. He won a record 229 professional tournaments worldwide during his career, including seven on the PGA Tour and most famously the 1967 Open Championship. ...

Award, named after one of the first golf stars to come out of Latin America. Players finishing 6th-50th retain privileges on PGA Tour Latinoamérica, but can also advance to the Korn Ferry Tour Qualifying Tournament depending on position. Those 2nd-5th can also improve their status at the Korn Ferry Tour Qualifying Tournament, gaining entry into the final stage. The fields consists of a maximum 144 players, with the top 50 plus ties making the cut.

History

2012 season

The 2012 season was the inaugural season of the tour and ran a series of 11 tournaments from September to December in seven

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...

n countries. Colombian Jesus Rivas teed the first shot on the new tour. The Order of Merit winner for the season was

Ariel Cañete Ariel Cañete (born 7 February 1975) is an Argentine professional golfer. Career Cañete was born in Santa Teresita, Buenos Aires. He turned professional in 1995. Having competed on the local Argentine Tour, and the Tour de las Américas earli ...

and the five players to graduate to the Web.com Tour based on their Order of Merit positions were Cañete,

Óscar Fraustro Óscar Fraustro (born 14 June 1982) is a Mexican professional golfer. He turned professional in 2006 and has played on the PGA Tour, Web.com Tour, and PGA Tour Latinoamérica. He finished 43rd in the 2014 Web.com Tour Finals to earn his PGA Tour ...

Clodomiro Carranza Clodomiro Carranza (born 26 April 1982) is an Argentinian professional golfer who currently plays on the PGA Tour Latinoamérica, having previously played on the European Tour, Web.com Tour and Tour de las Américas. Professional career Carranza ...

, Matías O'Curry, and

Tommy Cocha Tomás "Tommy" Cocha (born 26 April 1991) is an Argentine professional golfer who currently plays on PGA Tour Latinoamérica having previously played on the Web.com Tour and the Tour de las Américas. Cocha won the silver (men's individual) and ...

2013 season

The 2013 season was the first full season of play on the tour with an increased schedule of 14 tournaments running in 2 distinct swings with events played from March to May and October to December. Under the new format the number of tournaments was increased. In April 2013, the

NEC Corporation is a Japanese multinational information technology and electronics corporation, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo. The company was known as the Nippon Electric Company, Limited, before rebranding in 1983 as NEC. It provides IT and network soluti ...

became the sponsor of PGA Tour Latinoamérica and the tour was renamed NEC Series - PGA Tour Latinoamérica. The Order of Merit winner for the season was

Ryan Blaum Ryan Stephen Blaum (born October 16, 1983) is an American professional golfer who currently plays on the PGA Tour, having previously played on Korn Ferry Tour, PGA Tour Latinoamérica and the NGA Pro Golf Tour. Amateur career Blaum played colle ...

and the five players to graduate to the Web.com Tour based on their Order of Merit positions were Blaum,

José de Jesús Rodríguez José de Jesús Rodríguez Martínez (born 22 January 1981) is a Mexican professional golfer who currently plays on the Korn Ferry Tour. Rodríguez has previously played on the PGA Tour, PGA Tour Canada, PGA Tour Latinoamérica, and the Tour de ...

, Timothy O'Neal,

Jorge Fernández-Valdés Jorge Diogenes Fernández-Valdés (born 6 August 1992) is an Argentine professional golfer who currently plays on the Korn Ferry Tour. Amateur career Fernández-Valdés had a successful junior career representing Argentina at the 2009 Toyota J ...

, and Manuel Villegas.

2014 season

The 2014 season continued to be played in the 2 swing format as in 2013 but was extended to a total of 18 tournaments for the season. A notable addition to the schedule was the Bridgestone America's Golf Cup, a new unofficial money event on the tour; the event has the highest purse of any event on the tour at $600,000. Initially it was confirmed that

Tiger Woods Eldrick Tont "Tiger" Woods (born December 30, 1975) is an American professional golfer. He is tied for first in PGA Tour wins, ranks second in men's major championships, and holds numerous golf records. * * * Woods is widely regarded as ...

and

Matt Kuchar Matthew Gregory Kuchar (born June 21, 1978) is an American professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour and formerly the Nationwide Tour. He has won nine times on the PGA Tour. Kuchar briefly enjoyed success in the early 2000s before sufferin ...

would play in the team event; however, following Woods's injuries in 2014, they did not compete. The Order of Merit winner for the season was

Julián Etulain Julián Oscar Etulain (born 21 June 1988) is an Argentine professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour. Amateur career Before turning professional in 2008, Etulain had won the Argentine Amateur Championship and had represented Argentina at a nu ...

and the five players to graduate to the Web.com Tour based on their Order of Merit positions were Etulain,

Marcelo Rozo Marcelo Rozo (born 6 September 1989) is a Colombian professional golfer who plays on Korn Ferry Tour. Professional career Rozo turned professional in 2012. He became a full-time member of PGA Tour Latinoamérica in 2013 and won his first title o ...

Tyler McCumber Mark Tyler McCumber (born April 4, 1991) is an American professional golfer who currently plays on the PGA Tour. He spent his first professional season on PGA Tour Latinoamérica. He is the son of professional golfer Mark McCumber, who was the 1 ...

, Brad Hopfinger, and

2015 season

The 2015 season had one more event than the 2014 season, with one event dropped from the schedule, the

TransAmerican Power Products CRV Open The TransAmerican Power Products CRV Open was a men's professional golf tournament held in Mexico on PGA Tour Latinoamérica. The tournament was first played in 2012 at La Herradura Golf Club and the inaugural winner of the event was Ariel Cañet ...

, and two added: the Honduras Open and the PGA Tour Latinoamérica Tour Championship.

Rodolfo Cazaubón Rodolfo Cazaubón Jr. (born 5 August 1989) is a Mexican professional golfer who currently plays on the Web.com Tour. Amateur career Cazaubón played college golf at the University of North Texas where he won three tournaments in his senior year ...

led the Order of Merit to earn a Web.com Tour card. Also exempt are Kent Bulle,

Rafael Campos Rafael Campos (13 May 1936 – 9 July 1985) was an actor from the Dominican Republic whose credits include ''Blackboard Jungle'' (1955), '' Dino'' (1957), '' The Light in the Forest'' (1958), ''Slumber Party '57'' (1976), ''The Astro-Zombies'' (1 ...

, Alexandre Rocha, and

2016 season

The 2016 season had eighteen official events plus The Aruba Cup, an unofficial event where the PGA Tour Latinoamérica competed against

PGA Tour Canada PGA Tour Canada, commonly referred to as the Canadian Tour, is a men's professional golf tour headquartered in Toronto, Ontario. The United States based PGA Tour took over operation of the tour on November 1, 2012, at which time it was renamed PG ...

. The

Visa Open de Argentina The Argentine Open or Abierto de la República or Abierto de Argentina is one of the oldest national golf open championships. First played in 1905, when it was called the Open Championship of the River Plate, it has featured numerous notable winn ...

gave the winner entry into the

2017 Open Championship The 2017 Open Championship was a major golf championship and the 146th Open Championship, held 20–23 July at Royal Birkdale Golf Club in Southport, England. It was the tenth Open Championship at Royal Birkdale, which held its first in 1954. J ...

. The five players that earned Web.com Tour cards were Nate Lashley, Augusto Núñez, Guillermo Pereira, Emilio Domínguez, and Samuel Del Val.

2017 season

2018 season

2019 season

2020–21 season

2022 season

Developmental Series

In 2013, the tour organized other events from the region into a Developmental Series. The top five finishers from each event qualify for the Dev Series Final, and the top fifteen finishers at the Final earn status on PGA Tour Latinoamérica for the following year. Events on the Dev Series include the

Abierto del Sur The South Open, or Abierto del Sur, is one of the major regional open golf tournaments in Argentina, and is also one of the oldest, having been inaugurated 1918. It has always been held at the Mar del Plata Golf Club in Mar del Plata, Buenos Aire ...

Abierto Norpatagónico The Norpatagonico Open, or Abierto Norpatagónico, is one of the major professional golf tournaments in Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of ...

Abierto del Litoral The Coast Open, or Abierto del Litoral, is a golf tournament played in Argentina. Founded in 1932 as the Torneo de Profesionales (Professional Tournament), a name only used for the first two editions, it has always been played at the Rosario Gol ...

, and Abierto de Venezuela.

Aruba Cup

The

Aruba Cup The Aruba Cup was an annual team golf competition between teams representing PGA Tour Latinoamérica and PGA Tour Canada. It was founded in 2016 and took place in December. The 2016 and 2017 events were held at the Tierra del Sol Resort, Spa & Cou ...

is a team tournament first held on December 15–17, 2016 at Tierra del Sol Resort and Country Club. A PGA Tour Latinoamérica team plays a

team, with ten players in each team. PGA Tour Latinoamérica won the inaugural event, 13−7.

Order of Merit winners

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:PGA Tour Latinoamerica Professional golf tours Sports competitions in the Americas Latin America 2012 establishments in Mexico