(ISPS, also known as ISPS Handa) is a Japanese non-profit organization known for its sponsorship of

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 ...

tournaments worldwide, including the

PGA Seniors Championship The PGA Seniors Championship is a European Senior Tour golf tournament for men aged fifty and above. It was founded in 1957 and became part of the European Senior Tour on its founding in 1992. It was not held in 2016 or 2017 but returned in 2018 ...

and LPGA Women's Australian Open. ISPS Handa is a member of the Tokyo Sports Association, a public interest incorporated foundation. ISPS founder Haruhisa Handa is known for promoting

blind golf Disability golf classification is used for deaf golf, blind golf, amputee golf, golf for the mentally disabled, paraplegic golf and other forms of golf involving people with disabilities. Classifications Amputee golf Blind golf Blind golf is a ...

and introducing the sport to Japan. ISPS is involved in the campaign for disabled golf to be adopted as an official event of the Paralympics.

History

* ISPS Handa was founded in 2006, establishing “

Handa Cup The Handa Cup is a series of senior women's golf matches between a United States team and a World Team drawn from players from the rest of the world. It was founded in 2006 and is an event on the LPGA Legends Tour. Since 2013 it has been officially ...

” in US, as well as the “Handa Australian Cup” in Australia to fund and support LPGA senior golf tournaments. It also began organizing amateur events such as the ''Handa Cup All-Japan Golf Tutors Pro-Am Open Championship.'' * Since 2007, ISPS Handa has also supported bowling tournaments in Japan, and has co-sanctioned Handa Cup Japan Pro Bowling Championship and Handa Cup All Japan Women's Pro Bowling Championship. It also began to establish and support tournaments for international major tours. * Since 2010, ISPS Handa has been hosting championships in Japan such as: JPGA Senior Tour and JGTO Challenge Tournament, including the ISPS Handa Cup Senior Masters. * In January 2012, ISPS Handa established the ISPS Handa PGA Academy Program in collaboration with the

PGA European Tour The European Tour (currently known as the DP World Tour for sponsorship reasons), legally the PGA European Tour is the leading men's professional golf tour in Europe. The organisation also operates the European Senior Tour (for players aged fif ...

, in which UK professional golfers provide instruction to blind golfers. * In 2013, ISPS Handa organized World Sports Values Summit for Peace in Tokyo. * In July 2014, ISPS Handa started supporting Mpumalanga Black Aces F.C. in the Republic of

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

. * In June 2015, ISPS Handa founded

ISPS Handa Global Cup The ISPS Handa Global Cup was professional golf tournament on the Japan Golf Tour. Its main sponsor was International Sports Promotion Society (ISPS). Founded in 2015 as a 72-hole stroke play tournament, in 2017 it became a match play Match p ...

, its first hosting tournament in association with Japan Golf Tour Organization.

Golf

ISPS Handa promotes disabled golf and blind golf, and provides management and financial support to a number of tournaments in cooperation with the local golf associations worldwide. There have been a number of tournaments organized entitled “ISPS”, the abbreviation of International Sports Promotion Society and “HANDA” which is the last name of Haruhisa Handa, the Chairman, as well as the combined title “ISPS HANDA”. ISPS Handa became the title sponsor for the 2013 Golf World Cup, resulting in the official title of the tournament as “ISPS Handa World Cup Golf”. The 6th PGA Handa Cup Philanthropy Senior Tournament (organized by The Professional Golfers’ Association of Japan), had total prize money 5 times higher than the previous year's (2006 The 5th PGA Philanthropy Rebornest Senior Open), becoming the first “Total Prize Money 100,000,000 yen Tournament” in the history of the PGA Senior Tour. Since its 11th event in 2012, this Tournament has been organized by ISPS, and the 2014 event was entitled as the “ISPS Handa Cup Philanthropy Senior Tournament”. The ISPS Handa Global Cup ( Japan Golf Tour Organization) launched in June 2015, was broadcast overseas as a golf program with a commentator in English for the first time in the golf history of Japan. Besides the TV broadcast, the program was also distributed online through

Ustream IBM Watson Media (formerly Ustream and IBM Cloud Video) is an American virtual events platform company which is a division of IBM. Prior to IBM acquisition, it had more than 180 employees across San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Budapest offices. ...

. The winner received as a prize a Japanese green

Haori The is a traditional Japanese hip- or thigh-length jacket worn over a kimono. Resembling a shortened kimono with no overlapping front panels (), the typically features a thinner collar than that of a kimono, and is sewn with the addition of ...

, instead of the green jacket.

Current ISPS Handa events

Past ISPS Handa events

Summit

ISPS co-sanctioned the World Sports Values Summit for Peace in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

, which was held on 18–19 July 2013. Top athletes and

researchers Research is "creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge". It involves the collection, organization and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular attentiveness t ...

came together from 16 countries around the world to discuss the topic “Sports can contribute to harmonize the development of humanity and to establish and encourage a peaceful society”. At the World Sports Values Summit for Peace and Development, held on 23–24 May 2014 at the

United Nations Headquarters zh, 联合国总部大楼french: Siège des Nations uniesrussian: Штаб-квартира Организации Объединённых Наций es, Sede de las Naciones Unidas , image = Midtown Manhattan Skyline 004.jpg , im ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, a partnership between ISPS and the United Nations

Alliance of Civilizations The United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) is an initiative that attempts to "galvanize international action against extremism" through the forging of international, intercultural and interreligious dialogue and cooperation. The Allian ...

(UNAOC) was announced.

Japan bowling

In Japan ISPS supports bowling, hosting national tournaments throughout the year. In Japan roughly 20% of the population bowls, compared with the 13.8% who play golf. However, the number of bowling alleys has decreased from 3,000 to 1,000. Through the support of the ISPS, a number of bowling events have been held and the professionalism of the sport has been advanced.

Organization

;Founder and Chairman * Haruhisa Handa ;Honorary Chairman *

George Carey George Leonard Carey, Baron Carey of Clifton (born 13 November 1935) is a retired Anglican bishop who was the Archbishop of Canterbury from 1991 to 2002, having previously been the Bishop of Bath and Wells. During his time as archbishop the C ...

;Director *

Shinichiro Kurimoto is a Japanese author and a politician. He is also an economic anthropologist and a philosopher who introduced the ideas of Karl Polanyi and his younger brother Michael Polanyi to Japan. He was a professor at universities such as Meiji Univers ...

;Affiliation pro :;Golfers :*

Hideto Tanihara is a Japanese professional golfer. He has won 17 tournaments on the Japan Golf Tour. Professional career Tanihara has won 14 tournaments on the Japan Golf Tour and featured in the top 50 of the Official World Golf Ranking. His highest ranking ...

Yoshinori Fujimoto Yoshinori Fujimoto (born 25 October 1989) is a Japanese professional golfer. As an amateur, Fujimoto won the individual silver medal at the 2011 Summer Universiade and led the Japan team to the gold medal. Fujimoto turned professional in 2012 ...

Akihito Yokoyama is a Japanese professional golfer. Yokoyama played on the Japan Golf Tour, winning three times. He is sponsored by ISPS. Professional wins (4) Japan Golf Tour wins (3) ''*Note: The 1989 Pepsi Ube Kosan Open was shortened to 54 holes due to ...

:*Miki Sakai :*Satoshi Nakayama :*

Akira Kobayashi is a Japanese actor and singer. His nickname is . Biography Kobayashi attended Meiji University but left before graduating. He became an actor at Nikkatsu and made his film debut with "Ueru Tamashii" directed by Yuzo Kawashima in 1956. He s ...

;Ambassadors *

Laura Davies Dame Laura Jane Davies, (born 5 October 1963) is an English female professional golfer. She has achieved the status of her nation's most accomplished female golfer of modern times, being the first non-American to finish at the top of the LPGA ...

Lydia Ko Lydia Ko (born 24 April 1997) is a New Zealand professional golfer and the No. 1-ranked woman professional golfer. She first achieved the top ranking on 2 February 2015 at of age, making her the youngest player of either gender to be ranked ...

Kathy Whitworth Kathrynne Ann Whitworth (September 27, 1939 – December 24, 2022) was an American professional golfer. During her playing career she won 88 LPGA Tour tournaments, more than anyone else on the LPGA or PGA Tours. Whitworth was also a runner-up ...

Jan Stephenson Jan Lynn Stephenson (born 22 December 1951) is an Australian professional golfer. She became a member of the LPGA Tour in 1974 and won three major championships and 16 LPGA Tour events. She has 41 worldwide victories including (10) LPGA Legen ...

* Miki Sakai

References

{{Reflist, 30em

External links

ISPS Golf
Organizations based in Tokyo Golf in Japan Ten-pin bowling in Japan Parasports organizations 2006 establishments in Japan Sports organizations established in 2006 Sports organizations of Japan