England Golf is the

governing body A governing body is a group of people that has the authority to exercise governance over an organization or political entity. The most formal is a government, a body whose sole responsibility and authority is to make binding decisions in a taken ge ...

for male and female amateur

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It represents over 1,900 golf clubs with over 740,000 members and is affiliated to

The R&A The R&A is the collective name of a group of companies that together play a significant role within the game of golf. Historically, "the R&A" was a colloquial name for the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews; in 2004, the club spun off ...

, the joint global governing body of golf. It was formed in 2012 as a merger between the English Golf Union, the governing body for men, and the

English Women's Golf Association The English Women's Golf Association (EWGA) was the governing body responsible for many aspects of women's and girls' amateur golf in England. It ran from 1952 to 2011, until it merged with the men's English Golf Union to form England Golf. It ...

, the equivalent body for women. England Golf is a member of Council of National Golf Unions (CONGU).

History

The English Golf Union was founded in 1924 and is based at the

National Golf Centre Woodhall Spa Golf Club is a private golf club in England, that is located to the north of Woodhall Spa, Lincolnshire. The club was founded in 1891. In 1995 the club was purchased by the English Golf Union, who have since relocated their headqua ...

Woodhall Spa Woodhall Spa is a former spa Village and civil parish in Lincolnshire, England, on the southern edge of the Lincolnshire Wolds, south-west of Horncastle, west of Skegness, east-south-east of Lincoln and north-west of Boston. It is noted for ...

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-west, Leicestershire ...

. It was run as a non-profit-making organisation and is funded mainly by affiliation fees paid by golfers as part of their club membership fee. The English Women's Golf Association was founded in 1952 as an offshoot of the

Ladies Golf Union The Ladies' Golf Union (LGU) was the governing body for women's and girls' amateur golf in Great Britain and Ireland. It was founded in 1893 and was based in St Andrews, Fife, Scotland until merging with The R&A at the start of 2017. Issette ...

(LGU), and handled local events, the handicapping system and liaised with

golf clubs A golf club is a club used to hit a golf ball in a game of golf. Each club is composed of a shaft with a grip and a club head. Woods are mainly used for long-distance fairway or tee shots; irons, the most versatile class, are used for a variety ...

. The EWGA was also responsible for promoting golf to girls and women in England. The two organisations decided to merge in 2011, in order to better promote the game in England, increase the commercial appeal of the amateur game, and increase equality in the sport. County unions of both organisations overwhelmingly voted in favour of the merger, which took effect from the beginning of 2012. The move also allowed

Sport England Sport England is a non-departmental public body under the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. Its role is to build the foundations of a community sport system by working with national governing bodies of sport, and other funded par ...

to provide £13 million of annual funding from 2013, which can be used to increase participation. England Golf continues to be run as a non-profit organisation, funded from affiliation fees and government grants.

Responsibilities

England Golf is responsible for the general promotion and administration of amateur golf within England. It organises individual and team championships for all age groups, and has inherited the running of the premier events from the male and female unions, including the

English Amateur Championship The English Amateur Championship, an annual snooker competition, is the highest-ranking and most prestigious amateur event in England. It is also the oldest and longest-running snooker tournament in the world, having been established in 1916, a ...

match play Match play is a scoring system for golf in which a player, or team, earns a point for each hole in which they have bested their opponents; as opposed to stroke play, in which the total number of strokes is counted over one or more rounds of 18 h ...

event), and the English Open Amateur

Stroke Play Stroke play, also known as medal play, is a scoring system in the sport of golf in which the total number of strokes is counted over one or more rounds of 18 holes. In stroke play, the winner is the player who has taken the fewest strokes over the ...

Championship (

Brabazon Trophy The English Men's Open Amateur Stroke Play Championship for the Brabazon Trophy is the national amateur stroke play golf championship in England (although entry is open to overseas golfers). It has been played annually since 1947 and is organised ...

). The larger all-Britain and Ireland events for men and women remain run by The R&A and the Ladies Golf Union respectively. It also administers the

handicapping Handicapping, in sport and games, is the practice of assigning advantage through scoring compensation or other advantage given to different contestants to equalize the chances of winning. The word also applies to the various methods by which th ...

system for golf in England and works to increase the interest and participation in golf among adults and juniors.

References

External links

Official site
{{Authority control Golf associations Amateur golf 1924 establishments in England Golf Union Organisations based in Lincolnshire Sports organizations established in 1924 Women's golf in the United Kingdom National members of the European Golf Association

History

Responsibilities

See also

References

External links