The Nationwide Tour will stage its first official event in Chile in 2012.
The "Chile Classic presented by Pacific Rubiales" will be played March 5-11 at Prince of Wales Country Club in Santiago. It will feature 144 players and a purse of $600,000. In addition to an international field of Nationwide Tour members, exemptions will be granted to the four leading money winners from the 2011 Tour de Las Americas Order of Merit. The tournament will also have eight unrestricted sponsor exemptions, six of which will be designated for players from Latin America.
"With golf being added to the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, the Chile Classic takes on additional significance in contributing to the growth of the game in the region during the run up to the Games," said Nationwide Tour president Bill Calfee.
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The event will mark the second Tour event to be staged in South America. The Bogota Open in Colombia has been staged the past two years.
The Chile tournament is the second new event to be added to the Nationwide schedule in 2012. In September, the Tour confirmed it would hold a tournament in southwestern Indiana next June.