Invitations have been accepted to compete in the 2024 Latin America Amateur Championship, which will be held January 18-21, 2024, at Santa María Golf Club in Panamá City, Panamá.
Founded by the Masters Tournament, The R&A and the USGA in 2014, the Latin America Amateur Championship was established to further develop amateur golf in South America, Central America, Mexico and the Caribbean. The event annually moves to top courses throughout Latin America and showcases the sport’s rising talent in the region. Notable past competitors include Colombia’s Nico Echavarria and Sebastian Muñoz, Argentina’s Alejandro Tosti and Chile’s Mito Pereira and Joaquin Niemann, the latter of which won the 2018 Championship. The champion receives an invitation to compete in the 2024 Masters Tournament and exemptions into The 152nd Open at Royal Troon and the 124th U.S. Open at Pinehurst No. 2.
Players from 29 IOC-recognized countries and territories from across Latin America will be represented in the 108-player field. The field is led by 12 players inside the top 200 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), including Mexico’s Omar Morales (No. 83), José Islas (No. 90) and Santiago de la Fuente (No. 96) inside the top 100. Aaron Jarvis (No. 445), the 2022 Latin America Amateur champion, will make his third straight appearance and fourth overall.
In 2023, Argentina’s Mateo Fernández de Oliveira – the top-ranked player in the field – had a record-setting performance en route to a 23-under 265 total over four rounds at Puerto Rico’s Grand Reserve Golf Club. With the addition of a U.S. Open exemption for the champion announced at the 2023 Championship, he became the first reigning champion to compete on exemptions in The Open and the U.S. Open, as well as an invitation to the Masters Tournament.
Santa María Golf Club, the host venue for the 2024 Championship, was designed in Panamá by Nicklaus Design, the golf firm founded by Jack Nicklaus, and offers views of the nearby Panamá City skyline. The par-72, 7,153-yard course opened in 2012 and has since hosted elite junior events over the past decade. The parkland-style golf course northeast of downtown Panamá City features undulating greens and presents a number of bunkers and lakes.
