Golf Australia 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 the

sport Sport pertains to any form of Competition, competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and Skill, skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to specta ...

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 ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, formed in 2006 after the Australian Golf Union (AGU) and Women's Golf Australia (WGA) agreed to

merge Merge, merging, or merger may refer to: Concepts * Merge (traffic), the reduction of the number of lanes on a road * Merge (linguistics), a basic syntactic operation in generative syntax in the Minimalist Program * Merger (politics), the comb ...

."About Golf Australia"
, Golf Australia official site
''

The Age ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria (Australia), Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Austral ...

'', 1 September 2005 The decision, which was formally ratified at a meeting in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

in August 2005,"Merger averts crisis"
''

Herald Sun The ''Herald Sun'' is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper based in Melbourne, Australia, published by The Herald and Weekly Times, a subsidiary of News Corp Australia, itself a subsidiary of the Murdoch owned News Corp. The ''Herald S ...

'', 1 September 2005 was made after the

Australian Sports Commission The Australian Sports Commission (ASC) is the Australian Government commission responsible for supporting and investing in sport in Australia. The Commission incorporates the Australian Institute of Sport. From 2018 to 2022, it was known as Sp ...

threatened to withdraw its financial support unless the two bodies amalgamated."Merger forces Phillips to quit"
Martin Blake, ''

'' 1 June 2005 The

contributed approximately A$1.5 million annually to the

Australian Institute of Sport The Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) is a high performance sports training institution in Australia. The Institute's headquarters were opened in 1981 and are situated in the northern suburb of Bruce, Canberra. The AIS is a division of the ...

for golf funding. Colin Phillips, the AGU's

executive director Executive director is commonly the title of the chief executive officer of a non-profit organization, government agency or international organization. The title is widely used in North American and European not-for-profit organizations, though ...

since 1978, retired from his position in 2005, claiming that the way the decision to merge had been forced upon the sport by the

federal government A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government (federalism). In a federation, the self-governin ...

, had been a factor in his decision. Following the merger,

IMG img or IMG is an abbreviation for image. img or IMG may also refer to: * IMG (company), global sports and media business headquartered in New York City but with its main offices in Cleveland, originally known as the "International Management Group ...

, the

sports marketing Sports marketing as a concept has established itself as a branch of marketing over the past few decades, however, a generally accepted definition does not exist. Academicians Kaser and Oelkers (2005, p. 9) define sports marketing as 'using spor ...

company which organizes the Australian Open golf event, signed a three-year deal which increased its ties to Golf Australia."No major changes … yet"
Martin Blake, ''

'' 29 March 2006 Former

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

pro and new Open chairman

Paul McNamee Paul McNamee (born 12 November 1954) is an Australian former doubles world No. 1 tennis player and prominent sports administrator. Tennis career Juniors In his hometown, McNamee won the boys' singles tournament at the 1973 Australian Open. ...

also renegotiated a deal signed by the old AGU, whereby the tournament would be hosted at the Moonah Links course in

Rye, Victoria Rye is a seaside town on the Mornington Peninsula in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, approximately south-west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the Shire of Mornington Peninsula local government area. Rye recorded a p ...

three times in every five years. That decision had been heavily criticized by golf professionals who found issue with the course layout, low attendances and poor corporate interest,"Parry sees no virtue in venue"
Martin Blake, ''

'' 27 November 2005 but the new organization was able to reduce its obligation to three tournaments before 2020."Sydney to keep Open until 2009"
, Martin Blake, ''

'', 11 February 2007 Golf Australia runs the

Australian Open The Australian Open is a tennis tournament held annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia. The tournament is the first of the four Grand Slam tennis events held each year, preceding the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open. Th ...

and the

Women's Australian Open The Women's Australian Open is a women's professional golf tournament played in Australia, operated by Golf Australia and the WPGA Tour of Australasia, long co-sanctioned by the Ladies European Tour (LET). Beginning with the 2012 event, it is ...

, the premier male and female golf tournaments in Australia, as well as the

Australian Amateur The Australian Amateur is the national amateur golf championship of Australia. It has been played annually since 1894, except for the war years, and is organised by Golf Australia. Having traditionally been a match play event, from 2021 it has b ...

and other national amateur events. It also runs key programs promoting golf in Australia, the two major being the MYGolf for juniors and the Crown Lager Social Golf Club. Australian golfer

Stuart Appleby Stuart Appleby (born 1 May 1971) is an Australian professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour Champions. He was a nine-time winner on the PGA Tour. Early life Appleby was born in Cohuna, Victoria, and grew up on a nearby dairy farm. He bega ...

is the ambassador for the Crown Lager Social Golf Club. Golf Australia supports the state associations Golf New South Wales, Golf Northern Territory, Golf Queensland, Golf South Australia,

Golf Tasmania 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 ...

, Golf Victoria & Golf Western Australia who are responsible for the governance, delivery and direction of golf in their State. The

Golf Australia National Squad Golf Australia support elite male and female amateurs golfers through the Australian National Squad. Golf Australia also runs a Rookie Program assisting professional golfers as they enter their professional careers. Notable members Australian Nati ...

is the key component of the countries High Performance program which supports talented young golfers. Squad members have included

Geoff Ogilvy Geoff Charles Ogilvy (born 11 June 1977) is an Australian professional golfer. He won the 2006 U.S. Open and has also won three World Golf Championships. Professional career Ogilvy was born in Adelaide, South Australia to an English-born fath ...

Karrie Webb Karrie Ann Webb (born 21 December 1974) is an Australian professional golfer. She plays mainly on the U.S.-based LPGA Tour, and also turns out once or twice a year on the ALPG Tour in her home country. She is a member of the World Golf Hall of ...

, Adam Scott,

Aaron Baddeley Aaron John Baddeley (born 17 March 1981) is an Australian professional golfer. He was born in Lebanon, New Hampshire, USA and now plays on the U.S.-based PGA Tour, he has joint U.S. and Australian citizenship and was raised in Australia from the ...

Michael Sim Michael Sim (born 23 October 1984) is an Australian professional golfer. Amateur career Sim was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, and moved to Australia when he was 5 years old. He was an Australian Institute of Sport scholarship holder in 2002. He ...

and

Katherine Hull Katherine Kirk (born 26 February 1982) is a professional golfer from Australia, currently playing on the U.S.-based LPGA Tour and the ALPG Tour. She played under her maiden name, Katherine Hull, until her marriage to Tom Kirk on 2 August 2012 ...

. With golf being readmitted back into the Olympic fold at the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics ( pt, Jogos Olímpicos de Verão de 2016), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad ( pt, Jogos da XXXI Olimpíada) and also known as Rio 2016, was an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 20 ...

, the role of Golf Australia was strengthened further. As part of this the

raised the funding to the sport in April 2013."Sailing, golf and rugby among the winners in new sports funding"
Alison Caldwell, '' The ABC'' 22 April 2013 Golf Australia owns and runs the Australian Handicapping system which operates throughout clubs nationally.

References

Golf associations Sports governing bodies in Australia Golf in Australia 2006 establishments in Australia Sports organizations established in 2006

See also

References

External links