For young golfers across the Caribbean, few events offer as much as the Latin America Amateur Championship. The LAAC was created by the Masters Tournament, The R&A and the USGA, and was first played in 2015. It gives the region’s best amateurs something that used to seem out of reach: a winner’s invitation to Augusta National, plus spots in two more major championships. Over the past decade the Caribbean has hosted the championship and produced two of its champions.
What the Latin America Amateur Championship Is
The founding partners modeled the LAAC on the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship. The idea was to build elite amateur golf in Mexico, Central America, South America and the Caribbean. It is a 72-hole stroke-play event, and recent fields have held just over 100 players. In 2024, for example, 108 players from 28 countries teed it up. Each country and territory gets guaranteed places, and further spots are handed out using the World Amateur Golf Ranking. That means golfers from smaller Caribbean federations get a direct way into a world-class field.
The venue changes every year. The 2027 edition will be the 12th.
The Prizes: Augusta and Beyond
The winner’s invitation to the Masters is the headline prize, but it isn’t the only one. The champion also gets exemptions into The Open and the U.S. Open, along with places in The Amateur Championship and the U.S. Amateur. In 2026 that meant starts in the 126th U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills and The 154th Open at Royal Birkdale, according to The R&A. Players who finish just behind the winner can also earn valuable exemptions. In 2026 the runner-up got spots in The Amateur Championship, the U.S. Amateur and major-championship qualifying.
Caribbean Hosts and Caribbean Champions
The Caribbean has become one of the championship’s regular homes. Casa de Campo in La Romana, Dominican Republic, has hosted three times: in 2016, 2019 and 2022. Puerto Rico’s Grand Reserve Golf Club in Río Grande hosted in 2023, when Argentina’s Mateo Fernández de Oliveira won at 23 under par.
The breakthrough for Caribbean players came at Casa de Campo in January 2022. Aaron Jarvis of the Cayman Islands closed with a 69, finished at seven under and won by one stroke. The R&A described him as the first Caribbean champion in the event’s history. He was 19 years old and ranked 1,669th in the World Amateur Golf Ranking before that week. His win came with invitations to the Masters and the 150th Open at St Andrews.
Three years later, another Caymanian did it again. In January 2025 at Pilar Golf Club in Argentina, Justin Hastings beat Peru’s Patrick Sparks by one shot. A threatening forecast had pushed officials to play the final 36 holes in one day. Hastings, then a 21-year-old senior at San Diego State, went on to play in three majors that year. An R&A official pointed out that the Cayman Islands has just 27 holes of golf, yet has now produced two Masters qualifiers.
2026 Result and the 2027 Venue
The 2026 championship was played January 14–18 at Lima Golf Club in Peru. It came down to a playoff. Argentina’s Mateo Pulcini and Venezuela’s Virgilio Paz Valdes both finished at five under, 275. Pulcini won on the second extra hole when Paz Valdes missed a long par putt on the 18th. Pulcini became the latest Argentine to win the title and earn a trip to Augusta.
In 2027 the championship goes back to Mexico. The LAAC has confirmed that El Camaleón at Mayakoba in Playa del Carmen will host January 14–17, 2027. It is the course’s second time as host; Argentina’s Abel Gallegos won there in 2020. El Camaleón is a Greg Norman design that opened in 2004. It runs through jungle, mangroves and oceanfront holes, and its par-5 seventh has a limestone cenote in the fairway. Announcing the venue, R&A chairman Martin Hattrell said the return to Mayakoba “signals the Founding Partners’ commitment to having the region’s most talented golfers compete on a world-class stage each year.”
Why It Matters for Caribbean Golf
Small federations rarely get this kind of exposure. A strong LAAC week can lift a player’s world ranking, draw college coaches and put a major championship on the calendar. Jarvis and Hastings both came from an island with limited facilities. Their wins suggest that talent, good junior programs and a clear goal can make up for a small golf infrastructure.
The next chance comes on Mexico’s Riviera Maya in January. Caribbean federations will be hoping to send players who can reach Augusta in April.