Invitations have been accepted to compete in the 2026 Latin America Amateur Championship, which will be held January 15-18, 2026, at Lima Golf Club in Lima, Peru. A list of confirmed players is available here.
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, which celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2025, annually moves to top courses throughout Latin America and showcases the sport’s rising talent in the region. The 2026 Championship will mark its debut in Peru. Notable past competitors include Colombia’s Nicolas Echavarria and Sebastian Muñoz, Argentina’s Alejandro Tosti and Chile’s Cristobal Del Solar, Mito Pereira and Joaquin Niemann, the latter of which won the 2018 Championship. The 2026 champion will receive an invitation to compete in the 2026 Masters Tournament and exemptions into The 154th Open at Royal Birkdale and the 126th U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills.
Players from 29 IOC-recognized countries and territories from across Latin America were invited to compete in the Championship with 106 confirmed thus far. The field is led by 10 players currently inside the top 100 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), which doubles last year’s total when invitations were accepted for the 2025 Latin America Amateur.
Top players include Guatemala’s Gabriel Palacios (No. 26) and Sebastian Barnoya (No. 74), Brazil’s Andrey Xavier (No. 34) and Herik Machado (No. 63), Bolivia’s Jose Luis Montaño (No. 54), Flavio Sameja (No. 66) and Vicente Quiroga (No. 98), Colombia’s Carlos Ardila (No. 60), Argentina’s Segundo Oliva Pinto (No. 83) and Mexico’s Carlos Astiazaran (No. 96). Aaron Jarvis, the 2022 Latin America Amateur champion, will make his sixth start in the Championship.
In 2025, the Cayman Islands’ Justin Hastings (16 under) outlasted Peru’s Patrick Sparks by one stroke in a marathon 36-hole final day as the final round was moved up to Saturday afternoon due to anticipated weather. He went on to compete in the three majors he received exemptions into – highlighted by low amateur honors at the U.S. Open – before turning professional at the end of the summer. Sparks will return for the 2026 edition held in his hometown of Lima, Peru.
Lima Golf Club is a parkland-style course surrounded by high-rise buildings, most of which have come in the century since the club’s inception in 1924. The venue has hosted the Copa Los Andes, the Pan American Games and the Women’s Amateur Latin America Championship. Lima Golf Club is one of the oldest courses in Peru and underwent a redesign by the golf course architecture firm, Mackenzie & Ebert, in 2018.
