What Does PGA TOUR and PGA Tour of Australasia Cooperation Agreement Mean?
/No one I spoke to here at the WGC Dell Match Play in Austin is sure, other than a clear upside to more big time golf in Australia. The likely first sign of cooperation will be an event sanctioning around the 2019 Presidents Cup. The 2018 World Cup is at Metropolitan later this year.
Either way, the great golf fans of Australia and even better courses will hopefully become a more prominent and regular part of the year-end golf events. There is also should be a boost from the added cache of any PGA Tour involvement, hopefully boosting the long-struggling Australian professional golf tournament swing.
For Immediate Release:
PGA TOUR and ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia announce cooperation agreement
Only one tour gets the caps treatment!
Golf-development relationship more tightly binds the two Tours together
They're tightly bound! That's good if it means more sandbelt golf...
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA and SANDHURST, VICTORIA—The PGA TOUR and ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia announced March 19 that they have signed a cooperation and golf-development agreement, with the two golf organizations 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 organizations 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, formalizing 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 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."
