Rio 2016 will see the sport makes its first appearance at the Olympics since the St Louis 1904 Games some 112 years earlier and the new golf series, which will be called PGA Tour Latinoamerica, is aimed at building interest in golf, which is currently not a major sport in the area.

PGA Tour Latinoamerica will consist of 11 events when it debuts next year, with a plan to increase 14 events in 2013, while it will award minimum prize money of $100,000.

It will be played across South American countries such as Colombia, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru and here in Mexico, a country which is likely to host two of the events.

"We see this as an opportunity to help in the further development of elite players across the region," said PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem.

"The timing is right with South America hosting its first ever Olympics with the Rio 2016 Olympics which includes golf's return to the competition for the first time in more than 100 years.

"Certainly now that we're into that period ramping up to Rio, we think it's very timely and we're delighted with the juxtaposition of bringing our brand to this region during these few years leading up to the Games in Rio."

"The Latin American market has already produced several PGA Tour stars, and one of our goals for this tour is to help develop the Latin American stars of the future."

Tour Latinoamerica will feature 72-hole stroke play events with up to 144 players involved and the season's top 25 money winner will advance to the Nationwide Tour, a US series one step below the elite US PGA Tour.

"This potential pathway to the higher levels of professional golf is something that is an improvement for the players in the region," said Henrique Lavie, the commissioner of the Tour of the Americas.

There are currently 14 Latin American players in the world's top 500 with eight of them on the US PGA Tour including Colombia's Camilo Villegas and Venezuelan Jhonattan Vegas.

The announcement of the PGA Tour Latinoamerica comes in the same week that Rio 2016 launched an international contest to design the golf course that will be used at the Olympics.

The golf course will be built at Reserva de Marapendi in Barra da Tijuca which is the district that will concentrate the largest number of the 2016 Olympic venues.

A number of legendary golfing figures including Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Greg Norman and Nick Faldo are thought to be interested in designing the course with the deadline for submission of documentation for the design contest to fall on October 28.

The successful candidate will be announced on December 23 this year and awarded the prestigious contract to develop the design of the course at a fixed price of $300,000 (£191,000/€217,000).

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