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principal men's professional golf tour throughout Latin America and the Caribbean from 2000 through to 2012 when it was superseded by the PGA Tour Latinoamérica.
History Top level tournament golf in Latin America has had an unstable history. Some of the national open championships in the region are long established, but they did not traditionally form a coherent tour. From the late 1950s through to the mid 1970s the Caribbean Tour, which was affiliated with the PGA Tour, comprised only a small number of tournaments but attracted entrants from leading European and American golfers. As interest from PGA Tour players dwindled, the tour eventually withdrew their support and the Caribbean Tour folded. The next attempt was the IMG promoted South American Tour, which began in 1979 with the existing national opens of the five leading Latin American countries and a circuit prize sponsored by Pierre Cardin.
A new circuit was founded in 1991, the Tour Sudamericano, which would become the first long-lived stable tour in the region. In 2000, new owners relaunched the tour under the name Tour de las Américas with the aim of creating a schedule which would cover the whole region from Argentina to the Caribbean, and gain broader media exposure. The tour soon introduced a policy of co-sanctioning some events with Europe's second tier Challenge Tour, and some years later, in 2008, a similar arrangement was agreed with the Canadian Tour. The TLA also co-operated with the Nationwide Tour; whereby some of the leading Tour de las Américas players are given entries to specific Nationwide Tour events.
In May 2003, it was announced that the tour had signed a title sponsorship agreement with American Express, being renamed as the American Express Tour de las Américas.
In the early 21st century, Latin America was the only region of the World which still did not have a professional tour which was a full member of the International Federation of PGA Tours, the Tour de las Américas having joined the federation as an associate member on 30 July 2007. In August 2010, the Governing Board of the Official World Golf Ranking made a provisional announcement that the tour would offer ranking points starting in 2011. The first tournament to receive ranking points was 2011 Abierto de Chile.
Order of Merit winners Season Winner Points Ref2012 Marco Ruiz 26,884 2011 Joaquín Estévez 51,970 2010 Julián Etulain 56,593 2009 Peter Gustafsson 40,934 Season Winner Prizemoney (US$) Ref2008 Estanislao Goya 58,105 2007 Miguel Rodríguez 60,180 2006 Fabrizio Zanotti 68,790 2005 Daniel Barbetti 41,514 2004 Rafael Gómez (2) 59,220 2003 Eduardo Argiró 48,174 2001–02 Rafael Gómez 55,987 2000–01 Ángel Romero 49,396 1999 Scott Dunlap 95,320 1998 Raúl Fretes (2) 101,088 1997 Ricardo González 1996 Pedro Martínez 1995 Ángel Cabrera 1994 Raúl Fretes 1993 Carlos Franco 1992 Eric Woods 1991 Ángel Franco
References
External links