PGA TOUR and ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia announce cooperation agreement

POSTED ON March 19, 2018 @ 2:46 pm

The PGA TOUR and ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia announced Thursday that they have signed a cooperation and golf-development agreement, with the two golf organisations collaborating to strengthen professional tournament golf in both the Australasian region as well as globally. The agreement went into effect on December 4, 2017.

The two organisations have long enjoyed a strong and healthy working relationship as members of the International Federation of PGA Tours, jointly sanctioning, with other governing bodies, the four World Golf Championships events and the World Cup of Golf. This new agreement will further strengthen the two Tours’ affiliation, formalising the efforts for both the PGA TOUR and the ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia to work together in a closer, more collaborative manner to support each Tour’s individual development.

With that in mind, the two golf tours, as members of the International Federation of PGA Tours, will bring the World Cup of Golf to The Metropolitan Golf Club in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia November 21-25, 2018. With the World Cup of Golf headed to Australia for the sixth time, this will move the country ahead of China and Spain in hosting the second-most number of World Cups. Only the United States, with 11, has hosted the tournament more often than Australia.

“We have always valued our association with the ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia, as numerous significant events in our history have occurred in Australia,” said PGA TOUR Executive Vice President and Chief Global Officer Ty Votaw.

“Australian players have also been pivotal in the history of the TOUR, whether it has been World Golf Hall of Famers David Graham, Kel Nagle, Greg Norman or Peter Thomson, or PLAYERS Championship winners such as, again, Greg Norman, Jason Day, Adam Scott and Steve Elkington—and so many others.”

Gavin Kirkman, CEO of the PGA of Australia, which owns and oversees the ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia, is equally as supportive.

“The ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia and the PGA TOUR have always shared a productive relationship, and this agreement is a great fit for us as we look to grow and enhance golf in the Australasian region,” said Kirkman.

“This agreement will provide assistance in the development of opportunities that grow the game of golf in Australia and also an ability to further the profile of Australia’s golfing talent.”

The PGA TOUR took the Presidents Cup outside the United States for the first time in 1998. After contesting the first two editions of the tournament in the United States, the PGA TOUR moved the tournament to The Royal Melbourne Golf Club, with the International Team capturing its only triumph in the biennial event’s 12-tournament history. The Presidents Cup returned to Royal Melbourne in 2011, and the Club will again host the tournament in 2019.

“The Presidents Cup is such an important tournament, and we recognise all that the Australian golf industry and fans have done to ensure the success of this competition,” Votaw continued. “We anticipate that the 2019 Presidents Cup will be every bit as successful as its two predecessors.”

Thomson and Norman have combined to captain five Presidents Cup International Teams, while Australia has hosted the World Cup of Golf five times. Australia has twice won the World Cup of Golf while competing in Australia, once in 1959, with the team of Nagle and Thomson, and most recently in 2013 with the team of Day and Scott, both tournaments held at Royal Melbourne Golf Club.