AUGUSTA, Ga. -- The leaders of golf's major championships announced on Monday that the gold-medal winners at the men's and women's Olympic golf tournaments will receive exemptions into their respective major champions the following year.

Golf is returning to the Olympic Games this year for the first time since 1904, with separate men's and women's events to be played in Rio de Janeiro this summer. The fields are composed of 60 players each, based on the world rankings.

"I think it's exciting that all the nine majors have come together to support the Olympics,'' said Mike Davis, executive director of the United States Golf Association. "I think we realize what Olympics can do in growing the game worldwide, and for that, I think this was exciting news.''

Davis was joined by Masters chairman Billy Payne, R&A chief executive Martin Slumbers and Pete Bevacqua, chief executive officer of the PGA of America in a news conference at Augusta National. Davis also read a statement from LPGA commissioner Mike Whan.

The gold-medal winner of the men's Olympic tournament will get a one-year exemption to qualify for the Masters, U.S. Open, The Open and the PGA Championship. The silver- and bronze-medal winners will be exempt from local qualifying for the U.S. Open.

The gold-medal winner of the women's Olympic tournament will get a one-year exemption to the 2016 Evian Championship as well as the 2017 ANA Inspiration, the KPMG PGA Championship, the U.S. Women's Open and the Ricoh Women's British Open.

The PGA Tour released a statement in which it said it was studying the matter and would have to get approval through its policy board if a place were to be offered in the Players Championship.

The Olympic fields are based on the world ranking, with the top 15 in the world automatically getting a spot in the field, with no more than four players per country eligible. After the top 15, just two players per country are eligible, and several projections have the Olympic fields going past the 300th-ranked player in the world.

There is a good chance that the winner of the gold medal will already be eligible for the majors. And yet, just 27 players in the projected men's Olympic field as of now are in the Masters.

"From our perspective, whether it's someone that is in the top rankings of the world or someone who is that Cinderella story, in both ways it's a positive,'' Bevacqua said. "It's a positive for golf; it's a great story for golf and it's certainly a positive for the PGA Championship, regardless of who comes out of that field, both on the men's and women's side, who qualifies for the championship.''