IGF — International Golf Federation

What is the IGF?

The International Golf Federation is the body that represents golf inside the Olympic Movement. It describes itself as “the recognised International Federation within the Olympic and Paralympic Movement” for the sport, and it operates from Lausanne, Switzerland, the city that also houses the IOC.^[1] [2]

It is unusual among the bodies filed on this site under international federation. Most world federations write their sport's rules, run its world championship and sanction its professional circuit. The IGF does none of those three. Its constitution states its objects as “to encourage the international development of the sport of golf; to foster friendship and sportsmanship among the peoples of the world…”, and, at Article 1.d, “to act as the international federation for golf in the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games”.^[3]

In practice the federation is a small Lausanne office working through what it calls a matrix of delivery partners drawn from its own membership, rather than a large standing administration.^[1] [2] The consequence is that the IGF's remit and the parts of golf a reader is most likely to have heard of do not overlap much.

What does the IGF govern or do?

The IGF's functions rest on its constitution. It acts as the international federation for golf at the Olympic Games and the Paralympic Games, and it conducts the biennial World Amateur Team Championships, defined in the constitution as the Eisenhower Trophy for men and the Espirito Santo Trophy for women.^[3] It also states an anti-doping and competition-integrity role for the sport in that Olympic context.^[1]

What it does not do is the point. The Rules of Golf are written and administered jointly by The R&A and the USGA, with the USGA responsible in the United States and Mexico and The R&A elsewhere, and are republished on a four-year cycle.^[7] The professional game is run by independent circuits and promoters: the PGA Tour, the LPGA and the developmental Korn Ferry Tour are separate corporate entities, the Masters is run by its host club, the U.S. Open by the USGA, and the Ryder Cup by its two organising associations. Several of those bodies are IGF Professional Members and delivery partners, but membership is not subordination.^[4] [2]

When was the IGF founded and where is it based?

Three dates need separating. The organisation was founded on 2 May 1958 in Washington, D.C., when delegates from 35 countries met and constituted the World Amateur Golf Council; 32 member organisations were in place that year.^[8] [6] The first Eisenhower Trophy followed in October 1958 at St Andrews, with 115 players from 29 countries.^[6]

The second date is the rename. The World Amateur Golf Council became the International Golf Federation in 2003, a change the federation's own history page ties to its move beyond a purely amateur remit.^[8] [6] The third is the move to Lausanne, which the IGF gives as its current seat but for which this page could not establish a date from a retrieved source.^[1] [2]

The founding meeting was convened out of a 1957 proposal by the USGA for a world amateur team competition, which is the institutional reason the American and British rule-making bodies sit so close to the federation's centre without being governed by it.^[6]

How is the IGF recognised?

Two instruments carry the recognition claim. The first is the IGF's own constitution, whose Article 1.d states the object of acting “as the international federation for golf in the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games and thereby to establish and enforce” the associated rules; the version retrieved for this page is dated September 2018 and may since have been amended.^[3] The second is the decision of the IOC Session in Copenhagen on 9 October 2009, which restored golf to the Olympic programme from 2016 by a recorded vote of 63 to 26.^[5] [9] A sport cannot be on the programme without a recognised international federation behind it, and it is the IGF that fills that role.^[9]

This page could not confirm the date on which the IOC first granted recognition to the federation, as distinct from the date golf was restored to the programme. The claim that the IGF is “the recognised International Federation” is the federation's own wording and is reported here as such.^[1] Olympedia, an independent reference, records the federation's Olympic role and its recognition by the International Paralympic Committee without supplying a recognition date either.^[8]

What does the IGF organise?

Two programmes. The first is Olympic golf: the federation is the governing body for the sport at the Games, where it has been contested since Rio 2016 as 72-hole individual stroke play for men and women, with entry governed by world ranking rather than by federation nomination alone. A mixed team event is scheduled to be added from 2028.^[9] [3] Because entry runs off the Official World Golf Ranking and the Women's World Golf Rankings, Olympic qualification in golf is unusually dependent on results earned on circuits the IGF does not control — a pattern covered under world ranking and Olympic qualification.^[9]

The second is the World Amateur Team Championships, held biennially: the Eisenhower Trophy for men, first played at St Andrews in October 1958, and the Espirito Santo Trophy for women, first played in Paris in October 1964 and taken over by the then World Amateur Golf Council in 1966.^[6] [3] These are the federation's own championships and they sit on the amateur side of the line discussed under professional and amateur.

Who are its members?

The IGF's membership page gives 156 National Federation Members and 21 Professional Members.^[4] Its constitution provides for three classes — National Federation Members, Professional Members and Associate Members — and requires that a national federation member “must be responsible for amateur golf activities in the country which that National Federation Member represents”, while a professional body can be admitted only on the unanimous approval of the Executive Committee.^[3]

Membership counts differ between the federation's own pages and secondary references: the membership page gives 156 national members, and a secondary source gives 154 national federations across 151 countries plus 21 professional members.^{[2] [4] [10]} This page reports the federation's own figure and flags the conflict rather than resolving it.

Alongside the membership the IGF names seven delivery partners that staff and resource its work: The R&A, the USGA, the PGA Tour, the European Tour, the PGA of America, the LPGA and the Masters Tournament.^[1] [4]