A fledgling amateur golf tournament founded to foster the game in the Asia Pacific region and driven by Augusta National Golf Club has exceeded all expectations, Augusta Chairman, Billy Payne said on Thursday.

Payne and success normally go together. He is the man credited with successfully steering the Olympics to Atlanta in 1996. But even he is surprised how quickly the Asia Pacific Championship has blossomed.

“I must say that had you asked me six years ago, would it have acquired this stature so soon, I probably would have said ‘I doubt it’,” he said.

“But I’m here, certainly, to rejoice over the fact that it has. And to say that the Masters Tournament, Augusta National Golf Club, is forever indebted to the R&A, who has been our instructor in all of this,” Payne said.

Augusta, the R&A and the Asia Pacific Golf Federation (APGF) are founding partners of the Asia Pacific Amateur Championship offers a spot in the field at Augusta to the winning amateur.

The tournament has come to Australia for the first time and is being played at Royal Melbourne Golf Club.

APGF chairman David Cherry announced the event will be played next year at the Clearwater Bay Golf and Country Club in Hong Kong.

Payne also announced a similar event to be played in Buenos Aires in January with the United States Golf Association coming on board as a partner.

“If you told me the event was going to be this successful in such a short time the men in white coats would have come for you,” Cherry said.

Payne, Cherry and R&A secretary, Peter Dawson, agreed the success in 2012 of teenage Chinese golfer Guan Tianlang in the event was the catalyst.

At 14, Tianlang became the youngest player to tee up in the history of the Masters and finished leading amateur in 2013 at Augusta.

Payne said the tournament would be back at Royal Melbourne “in the not too distant future”.