MALTA PLAYERS ON THEIR WAY TO THE WORLD TEAM AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIPS

27/09/2012

Andy Borg, Ruud Critien and Peter Satariano (members of the Royal Malta Golf Club and of the MGA National Team Squad) will this Sunday leave our shores to participate in the World Team Amateur Championships - Eisenhower Trophy - that will be held in Antalya, Turkey between Thursday 4th and Sunday 7th October.

Conducted by the International Golf Federation, which comprises the national governing bodies of more than 125 countries, the World Amateur Team Championships are a biennial international amateur golf competition that rotates among three geographic zones of the world: Asia/Pacific, Americas and Europe/Africa.

Coming to Europe for the first time since the founding of the MGA, this will be Malta’s first show in this prestigious event considered as the “Olympics” for amateur golf. Our participation has indeed become possible partly through the funding grant by the Maltese Olympic Committee as well as through the generous support of a handful of RMGC members.

The Championships actually kick off today with the Espirito Santo Trophy for the Ladies who will play on the Old and New Courses of the Gloria Golf Club. Just like their male compatriots, who will play the Eisenhower Trophy next week at Cornelia Golf Club and Antalya Golf Club (PGA Sulton Course), each team has two or three players, who each play 18 holes of stroke play over four days. In each round, the total of the two lowest scores from each team will constitute the team score for the round. The four-day (72-hole) total will be the team’s score for the championship.

The Old and New Course at Gloria Golf Club will be set up at 6,203 yards (5,670 meters) and 6,197 yards (5,665 meters), respectively, and both will play to par of 37-35=72.

Cornelia Golf Club will be set up at 6,886 yards (6,293 meters) and will play to par of 36-36=72. The PGA Sultan Course at Antalya Golf Club will be set up at 6,954 yards (6,359 meters) and will play to a par of 35-36=71.

A record number of 53 teams will compete for the Women’s World Amateur Team Championship, surpassing the previous record of 52 in Argentina in 2010. The World Amateur Team Championship will have 72 teams, another record number, which tops the previous mark of 70 in South Africa in 2006.

The winning team in the women’s competition receives custody of the Espirito Santo Trophy for the ensuing two years. The winning team in the men’s competition receives custody of the Eisenhower Trophy for the ensuing two years. Members of the winning teams receive gold medals, members of the second-place teams receive silver medals and members of the third-place teams receive bronze medals. The player with the lowest individual score in each championship is recognized at the respective closing ceremony, but no prize is awarded.

CONDUCTING ORGANIZATION
The International Golf Federation, previously known as the World Amateur Golf Council, which comprises national governing bodies of golf in 126 countries and international professional tours, conducts the World Amateur Team Championships. The IGF is the international federation for golf for the International Olympic Committee. The IGF will conduct the Olympic golf competition in Rio de Janeiro 2016.

THE EISENHOWER TROPHY
The Eisenhower Trophy, named for the 34th president of the United States of America, Dwight D. Eisenhower, was presented via the United States Golf Association and The R&A, by the Friends of American Golf for the inaugural World Amateur Team Championship, which was played on the Old Course at St. Andrews in 1958.

The idea of a World Amateur Team Championship and the World Amateur Golf Council grew out of a suggestion that the USGA received to consider the possibility of a team match between the USA and Japan in 1957.

The USGA, which was fortunate to have received many such invitations from other countries, simply could not accept them all. The USGA instead suggested a team competition that would bring together the best players of all countries, accommodating all possible interests. Even those American advocates of adding golf to the Olympics seemed satisfied with the World Team Championship idea.

In January 1958, the USGA Executive Committee approved in principle a plan for such a championship. In March of that year, a group of USGA representatives, including USGA President John D. Ames, met with officials of The Royal & Ancient Golf Club to discuss the plan. St. Andrews was proposed as the site of the first championship later that year. The R&A joined in implementing the idea. In May, representatives of the national amateur golf associations of 35 countries attended a planning conference in Washington, D.C., and formed the World Amateur Golf Council. The council had 32 member organizations, and planned the first championship.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower received the delegates in the Rose Garden of the White House and consented to the naming of the championship prize as the Eisenhower Trophy, saying, “Both officially and personally, I am interested in the plan advanced by the USGA for an amateur team golf championship among nations. I visualize it, as you do, as a potent force for establishing goodwill and friendship between yet another segment of the populations of nations.”

The championship received yet another stroke of good luck when Bob Jones agreed to be captain of the first USA Team. Jones had taken the first leg of his 1930 Grand Slam at St. Andrews by winning the British Amateur, but 22 years had passed since he had last visited there.

The first championship was played on the Old Course of St. Andrews in October 1958, and 115 players, representing 29 countries, competed. Australia won in a playoff with the USA. The lowest individual scores for the 72 holes were 301s by William Hyndman III of the USA, Bruce Devlin of Australia and Reid Jack of Great Britain & Ireland.

Jack Nicklaus, who represented the USA in 1960 at Merion Golf Club (East Course), in Ardmore, Pa., holds the 72-hole individual scoring record of 269.The United States of America has prevailed in 13 of the 27 competitions and Great Britain & Ireland has won four times, while countries as diverse in the world of golf as Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand and Sweden have each captured the Eisenhower Trophy.

The World Amateur Team Championship has now been conducted in 24 nations. In 2003, the name of the organization was changed from the World Amateur Golf Council to the International Golf Federation.

THE ESPIRITO SANTO TROPHY
The Espirito Santo Trophy was presented in 1964 as the prize for the Women’s World Amateur Team Championship of the International Golf Federation (then called the World Amateur Golf Council) by Mrs. Espirito Santo Silva of the Ricardo Espirito Santo family of Portugal. The trophy was presented through the Portuguese Golf Federation.

What began as a proposal match in 1964 between the USA and France grew into the Women’s World Amateur Team Championship. The impetus for this championship was an invitation for USA Curtis Cup Team to stop off in France for an informal match after that year’s Curtis Cup Match. The USGA accepted the invitation, but also suggested inviting other nations to create a women’s counterpart to the World Amateur Team Championship. A total of 25 teams and 75 players participated, which instantly established the competition as a member of international golf’s family of championships. There is no official prize for individual scoring. In 1966, the World Amateur Golf Council (IGF) assumed sponsorship of future Women’s World Amateur Team Championships. For the first time, in 2002, the championship for the Espirito Santo Trophy was played on two courses.

FOLLOW IT ON THE INTERNET
The IGF have created a Facebook fan page which will be constantly updated with photos and stories during the championships.

Please click on https://www.facebook.com/WATC2012 to view the page. If you have a Facebook account, do not hesitate to like, share or recommend the page to your friends.

Alternatively for starting times, scoring and other news you can link through the IGF website http://www.internationalgolffederation.org.

Whilst we thank the Maltese Olympic Committee, the RMGC sponsoring members, our corporate and supporting partners, the RMGC Board of Management and Captain’s Committee, Mr David Llewellyn, Mr Henning Schulze Doering and the R&A for their assistance and encouragement to make this first participation to the WATC possible, as well as the International Golf Federation for the above and forthcoming information material, we ask you to join us in wishing our players a safe journey to and back from these championships as well as every success during their stay. May all their putts go in!

Photo Caption:
William Beck (MGA President); Peter Satariano; Mr Justice Lino Farrugia Sacco (MOC President);
Ruud Critien; Andy Borg and Joseph Cassar (MOC General Secretary)