International PGA Overview

In 1972, Australian professional Robin Lipscombe created the idea of a world body for professional golfers. His concept was to unite all of the national professional golf organization members under one umbrella for the benefit of professional golfers worldwide. However, prior to the internet and the present-day ease of global communications, this proved to be a very difficult task logistically. In addition, his career as a golf professional and his worldwide travels took precedence. Through the years, however, his friends and colleagues urged him to pursue the idea when the timing was right.

With the dawning of the new millennium, the world had become much more of a global community, and instant communications worldwide were made possible. The timing now seemed right to form an organization that would unify and benefit all of the world’s professional golf organization members. With this being said, the International PGA was officially created under Mr. Lipscombe’s vision and with this sole purpose in mind.

Not much had changed since 1972. Due to the political and economic differences in each golfing nation, no two professional golf training programs were the same when it came to the training and certification of golf professionals, golf club managers, and golf teaching professionals. No national professional golf organization was willing to recognize one another when it came to their training and certification standards. Unfortunately, he found that no national professional golf association was interested in banding together globally, which would greatly benefit the very members each entity was serving.

Although the International PGA have always accepted the training programs of all nationally recognized professional golf associations we realize that some of these programs are now outdated and many have not kept pace with the benefits of existing technology. Certainly at the very least many need to realize the powerful values in the sharing of ideas, innovation and culture and the fact that this is beneficial to all professionals in the golfing industry.

In 2008, Mr. Lipscombe, along with several other international professionals felt that his concept should be incorporated globally which gave birth to the International PGA in Nassau, Bahamas. After consulting with the Bahamas Professional Golfers Association, it soon became evident that the International PGA would be formed and incorporated in the Bahamas under the International Corporation Act. For Logistical reasons, in 2010, the International PGA moved its national headquarters to the island nation of St. Lucia. In March 2020, the decision was made to change from www.InternationalPGA.com to www.InternationalPGA.Org in order to help more people understand the concept of our association and to create a more worldwide recognition. Shortly thereafter, the Covid-19 pandemic struck and the WGTF headquarters based in Florida took over daily operations for quality control purposes.