The International Golf Federation (IGF) was founded in 1958 and is the international federation recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as the world governing body for golf. The IGF has two membership categories representing the administration of golf internationally:
132 National Federation Members from 126 countries[1]
The Federation changed its name from the "World Amateur Golf Council" in 2003. It was founded in 1958 for the purpose of arranging international amateur competitions and it organizes two World Amateur Team Championships, the Eisenhower Trophy for men and the Espirito Santo Trophy for women.[3]
Secretariat
The headquarters of the IGF is located by the shores of Lake Geneva in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Golf was an inaugural Olympic sport at the 1904 Games in St. Louis, Missouri, USA, where the United States and Canada were the only competing countries. The globalization of the sport has meant that following a couple of failed attempts, the International Olympic Committee's executive board approved the inclusion of golf in the Olympics by a vote of 63 votes to 27 in 2009.[4][5] The sport was included in the 2016 Summer Olympics and the 2020 Olympic Games.
World Amateur Golf Team Championships
The World Amateur Golf Team Championships was started from 1958 and 1964.[6]
The Espirito Santo Trophy is a biennial world team championship for amateur women golfers. It was first held in 1964, organised by Mrs. Henri Prunaret and Lally Segard, and named after Ricardo and Silvia Espirito Santo, friends of Segard who donated the trophy.
