World Amateur Team Championships to visit Puerto Rico

BY iseekgolf.com | Amateur Golf Tour | 2004 World Amateur Team Championships | General | 15 Apr 2004

In October, more than 300 male and female amateur golfers will compete for their countries in Puerto Rico for international championships just as Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus and Annika Sorenstam have done in years past.

The events are the World Amateur Team Championships (WATC). This year, the flags of approximately 70 nations will fly at Rio Mar Country Club on Puerto Rico’s north coast, 20 miles east of San Juan. The women will play for the Espirito Santo Trophy from Oct. 20-23 and the men for the Eisenhower Trophy from Oct. 28-31.

It began in 1958 when The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, Scotland (The R&A) and the United States Golf Association (USGA) acted on numerous invitations for international amateur matches and organized the World Amateur Golf Council, now the International Golf Federation. With a stamp of approval from President Dwight D. Eisenhower, the organization conducted its first championship with teams from 29 countries in October of 1958 on the Old Course at St. Andrews. The women’s championship began in 1964. The last championship in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in October of 2002 included a record 63 men’s teams and 39 women’s. The record of women’s teams is 40 in 2000 in Germany. Those numbers are expected to increase in 2004.

Exemplifying the spirit of the founders, the captain of the 1958 USA team, Robert T. Jones, perhaps golf’s most famous amateur, said at the first gathering of international delegates: “I believe you should all feel great satisfaction in having taken a most constructive and far-reaching step in the promotion of cordial, friendly relations in the free world. Golf, being a game founded and thriving upon the virtues of courtesy, mutual respect, consideration and understanding, must be an ideal medium for bringing together the opposite corners of our free world.”

To bring the world to golf and vice versa, the IGF conducts the World Amateur Team Championships biennially, in three different zones around the globe. The organization was founded to encourage the international development of the game and to employ golf as a vehicle to foster friendship and sportsmanship. The IGF comprises the national governing bodies of golf of more than 100 countries.

“We hope to give the players a memorable international experience,” said the USGA’s Stephanie Parel, joint deputy secretary of the IGF. “While it is highly competitive, only one team will win and hopefully everyone will take away a sense of pride in having represented their country along with their teammates, which is a very rare achievement.”

To assure that the entire experience is unparalled, “the IGF secretariat will make at least three site visits in advance of the Championships to review the courses, the hotels and general facilities and to discuss the logistics of the whole event with those involved from the host country,” said Grant Moir, joint deputy secretary and Parel’s R&A counterpart. “In this way, it is hoped that the IGF can bring the experience gained from previous Championships to the table as well as the R&A’s and USGA’s long history of running Championships.”

The Puerto Rico Golf Association, celebrating its 50th Anniversary in 2004 promises a singular experience in golf and culture. “This is more than just an event to us,” said PRGA president Sidney Wolf. “It is a way we will utilize to continue growth of the game here. The essence of the mission statement of the IGF will be reflected in these championships.”

Source – USGA