By the Caribbean Journal staff

The PGA Tour has returned to Puerto Rico for the latest edition of the Puerto Rico open.

This year’s event, which is being held at the Coco Beach Golf Club in Rio Grande, has a field that includes a mix of up-and-coming players and veteran PGA tour players like Retief Goosen and Trevor Immelman. (The mix is largely due to the fact that the Puerto Rico open is going up concurrently against the WGC-Mexico Championship, which tends to attract the lion’s share of top golfers).

The event began on Thursday.

This year’s field also includes Puerto Rico native Rafael Campos, who was the first-ever Puerto Rican winner on the Web.com tour earlier this year in Abaco.

“We are excited that the PGA Tour is returning to Puerto Rico as the principal annual sporting event on the island,” said Andy Pazder, the chief tournament and operations officer for the PGA Tour.

The Tour has confirmed that the tournament will be a PGA event through at least 2020.

While the island’s tourism officials do not push its golf offering significantly, Puerto Rico is one of the leading golf destinations in the Caribbean.

— CJ