Eisenhower Trophy
Organized by the International Golf Federation (known as the World Amateur Golf Council up until 2003), the Eisenhower Trophy is the World Amateur Team Championship which is played every two years at various locations around the world. In 1958, US President Dwight D. Eisenhower received delegates from 35 national golf associations attending a planning conference in Washington DC, and agreed to having the tournament prize named as the Eisenhower Trophy.
Eisenhower endorsed the concept of a global golf competition 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 first edition of this stroke play contest was arranged for later that year on The Old Course at St Andrews, with 115 players representing 29 countries, and Australia won the inaugural event after a play-off against the USA. The scoring format until 2000 was the best three of the 4-man team scores to count for each of the four rounds played. Since then, teams have been reduced to three players, with two scores counting every day.
Also since 2002, the Great Britain & Ireland team no longer competes as a conglomerate. Instead, four individual nations – England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland – now enter as separate teams and this has obviously gone some way towards boosting the number of participating countries to more than seventy.
All the biggest margins of victory in The Eisenhower Trophy are recorded in favour of Team USA. They finished 16 strokes ahead of Scotland i...
Organized by the International Golf Federation (known as the World Amateur Golf Council up until 2003), the Eisenhower Trophy is the World Amateur Team Championship which is played every two years at various locations around the world. In 1958, US President Dwight D. Eisenhower received delegates from 35 national golf associations attending a planning conference in Washington DC, and agreed to having the tournament prize named as the Eisenhower Trophy.
Eisenhower endorsed the concept of a global golf competition 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 first edition of this stroke play contest was arranged for later that year on The Old Course at St Andrews, with 115 players representing 29 countries, and Australia won the inaugural event after a play-off against the USA. The scoring format until 2000 was the best three of the 4-man team scores to count for each of the four rounds played. Since then, teams have been reduced to three players, with two scores counting every day.
Also since 2002, the Great Britain & Ireland team no longer competes as a conglomerate. Instead, four individual nations – England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland – now enter as separate teams and this has obviously gone some way towards boosting the number of participating countries to more than seventy.
All the biggest margins of victory in The Eisenhower Trophy are recorded in favour of Team USA. They finished 16 strokes ahead of Scotland in 2000 and 27 strokes in front of South Africa in 1980 but the most satisfying victory must have been the 42-stoke win over Australia in 1960 to make up for the play-off loss incurred two years earlier.
The USA has won almost half the biennial meetings that have taken place up until 2020, finishing outside the top three places on only five occasions. Australia and GB&I have each won the trophy four times. On the individual scoring front, several golfers with the best score in a single edition of the tournament have gone on to excel in the professional ranks, including Jack Nicklaus (1960), Hall Sutton (1980), Rickie Fowler (2008) and John Rahm (2014).
Most competitions have been held at one venue (sometimes using two courses) but, starting in 1992, the Eisenhower Trophy has been staged at two locations in close proximity to one another. The most popular continent for staging the event is Europe, where ten courses in ten different countries have been used by the IGF down the years. Worldwide, four countries have each hosted the championship twice: Argentina (1972, 2010); Japan (1962, 2014); Mexico (1966, 2016); and the USA (1960, 1980).
Two venues are missing from our listings: Karuizawa 72 in Japan (2014) and La Dehesa in Chile (1998).
Eisenhower Trophy host courses
Antalya (PGA Sultan)
3rd

Carved through a forest of eucalyptus and pine, the PGA Sultan course is one of Europe’s best new courses and it’s attached to one of Turkey’s finest resorts.
Bad Saarow (Arnold Palmer)
5th

Arnold Palmer laid out the first course at the Sporting Club Berlin Scharmützelsee (now known as Bad Saarow Golf Club) back in 1995 and it’s a cracker and probably the course you’ll want to limber up on first.
Bad Saarow (Faldo Berlin)
4th

There are golf holes to spare at Golf Club Bad Saarow (formerly known as Sporting Club Berlin Scharmützelsee) – 63 in total – but the centrepiece of this golf resort, which is situated in Bad Saarow next to the beautiful Lake Scharmützel, is the Faldo Berlin course.
Buenos Aires (Green & Yellow)
4th
The 27 holes at Buenos Aires Golf Club opened for play in 1994 and the renowned architect Robert von Hagge designed each loop.
Carton House (Montgomerie)
2nd

The Montgomerie course at Carton House hosted the 2005 Irish Open. Although not a links course, it looks and plays like one.
Carton House (O'Meara)
3rd

The O'Meara is the oldest of the two courses at Carton House. Designed by Mark in conjunction with European Golf Design, opening for play in May 2002.
Casa de Campo (Teeth of the Dog)
1st


There’s one golf course at Casa de Campo with a bark as well as a bite and it’s Pete Dye’s Teeth of the Dog.
Christchurch
5th


The Christchurch Golf Club has a history stretching back to 1873 and according to our records it's the second oldest golf club in New Zealand.
Cornelia (Prince)
2nd

According to Nick Faldo, Cornelia is routed over "an exceptional piece of land" and who can argue? It's an instant hit with holes routed through pines and across naturally sandy ground.
Eisenhower Trophy Leaderboard
Rank | Name | Courses Played |
---|---|---|
1 | Bob McCoy |
|
= | Paul Rudovsky |
|
3 | Kimi Hoshiyama |
|
= | Joseph Andriole |
|
5 | David Harak |
|
6 | Helmut Baeck |
|
= | Peter Wood |
|
8 | Tao Lin |
|
= | Fergal O'Leary |
|
= | BL Tracker |
|