By the end of the 19th century, Golf arrived to Argentina brought by the British who were settling and running the railway companies in our country. There was plenty of territory in those days, so every important railway station had its own golf club, giving the club members the possibility to get there by train.

In 1892, the first local golf club was created by the residing Scottish community and it was named "San Andrés Golf Club" in honor of the Royal & Ancient Saint Andrews GC, adopting Scotland’s National flag. In the old course, the first official golf match against the Uruguayan team was played in 1894; then, in 1907 the club finally relocated the course in its actual address. Since then, the oldest local golf clubs were founded, such as "Lomas Athletic Club", "Hurlingham Club" or "Ranelagh GC": all of them in the outskirts of Buenos Aires. At that same time, in other parts of the country a number of private clubs were inaugurating its courses like for example "Mar del Plata GC", "Atlantic GC de Miramar" or "Cordoba GC", most of them founded by British people, too.

At present, Argentina is the country with the largest golf tradition in South America, proof of that are its more than 270 courses and the largest golf population in the region with more than 60,000 handicaps granted, which keeps growing every day. The only two Major Champions of the region were also born here: Mr. Roberto De Vicenzo won the 1967 British Open, and Angel Cabrera conquered the 2007 U.S. Open & 2009 Masters Tournament. “El Maestro” De Vicenzo, who won more than 230 tournaments around the world, was also the first U.S. Senior Open Champion in 1980, a feat reached in 2008 by the 8th-time European Tour winner Eduardo Romero. Argentina also has a new promise inside the PGA Tour, the young Andres Romero, who achieved four top ten in his last seven Major Championships.

The Argentine Open (nowadays part of the European Challenge Tour) is the seventh oldest national tournament in the world behind the British Open Championship and the national open championships of India, USA, Canada, Australia and South Africa as it was played for the first time in 1904. Our National Open received some of the best players in golf history such us: Byron Nelson, Sam Snead, Craig Stadler, Tom Watson, Jim Furyk, Vijay Singh, Mark O´Meara and Sergio Garcia. Our second biggest tournament is the Argentine Masters played every year in the Olivos G.C., where players of the size of John Daly, Bernard Langer, Jack Nicklaus, Payne Stewart or Paul Azinger participated, too.

Undoubtedly, the greatest milestone in the Argentine golf history was the 2000 EMC World Cup, where Tiger Woods and David Duval (the champions) spearheaded a great number of players that included the locals Eduardo Romero and Angel Cabrera; the Spaniards Gimenez and Olazabal; the Canadians Ames and Weir; Padraig Harringtong representing Ireland and Retief Goosen for South Africa.
 
These days Argentina is still producing great players, some of them from parts of the different professional tours (from the PGA to European Chellenge). Due to all this achievements of the local players, golf popularity is growing incredibly fast, every day more and more people try to practice this sport. In fact our amateur golfers (most of them future pros) are also the best of South America with the largest victories in the “Copa Los Andes” (South American teams Championship) – both Men and Ladies. In order to expand our golf legacy, Argentina was chosen to organize the 2010 Golf Amateur World Championship.

In addition, during the last ten years, famous designers like Jack Nicklaus, Robert Von Hagge, Randall Thompson or Gregg Norman have been working on a number of very ambitious golf resort developments expecting a sustained growth of the golf vacations industry.

This combination of the finest and ancient golf traditions of the world, mixed up with a strong cultural life (Tango, Football, Wine, Polo) and unique natural landscapes (Patagonia, Iguazu Falls, Calafate Glaciers) explains why Argentina was awarded as “Golf Destination of the Year 2008” (Latin America & Caribbean) at the International Golf Travel Market 2007.

Golf Pioneers 1880
 

San Andres GC 1892

De Vicenzo, Open 1967

Cabrera, US Open 2007

Eduardo Romero,
US Senior Open 2008

Masters 2009 Champion