Dubai: The race to host the 2023 World Amateur Team Championships in golf is turning out to be a close contest between Dubai and Singapore.
The International Golf Federation (IGF) is scheduled to vote on the host at its biennial meeting, to be held virtually, during the course of this week.
Singapore was due to host the 2020 event this month after it was moved from Hong Kong due to the anti-government unrest in the city last year. However, the competition was then called off due to the coronavirus pandemic with the biennial meeting, which was due to be held alongside, also moving online as a result.
Dubai has put forward Jumeirah Golf Estates for 2023 venue with Singapore centering its bid on the world famous Sentosa Golf Club.
Delegates at the meeting will also get an update on the 2022 Championships, which are planned for Le Golf National near Paris, the same course that staged the Ryder Cup in 2018.
Conducted by the International Golf Federation (formerly the World Amateur Golf Council), which comprises the national governing bodies of golf in more than 125 countries, the World Amateur Team Championships are a biennial international amateur golf competition rotated among three geographic zones of the world, namely Asia-Pacific, American and European-African.
Each team has two or three players and plays 18-holes of strokeplay for four days. In each round, the total of the two lowest scores from each team constitutes the team score for the round. The four-day (72-hole) total is the team’s score for the championship.
A report will also be made on the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, which have been postponed until next year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Golf is due to continue its re-emergence as an Olympic sport in Japan’s capital, where the Kasumigaseki Country Club is the planned venue. The sport appeared on the Rio 2016 programme, ending a 108-year absence since it had last been contested at the St Louis 1904 Games.
Other items on the agenda include a report on the Summer Youth Olympic Games in Senegal’s capital Dakar, which have been moved from 2022 to 2026 after officials blamed the global health crisis.
Discussion will also be held on the IGF’s relations with the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations and the Global Association of International Sports Federations, while members of the Administrative Committee for 2020 to 2022 will be proposed.
