History

The U. S. Golf Association held the first intercollegiate golf tournament in 1897, before the NCAA had been founded, and conducted the tournament annually until 1939, when the NCAA took it over.

During the USGA years, Harvard, Princeton and Yale won almost all of the championships. Once the NCAA began conducting the tournament, there was much broader representation and other schools came to the fore. Although Yale still leads in over-all team titles, Houston now ranks second, with 16 championships over a 30-year period.

The tournament was conducted at match play through 1964. The format was changed to 72-hole stroke play in 1965. Each competing school has a team of five golfers, but only the four lowest scores count toward the championship.

Until the 1950s, it was rare for a collegiate golfer to turn professional, because that was not the sort of thing a gentleman would do.

Since then, however, many colleges have established scholarship programs for golfers and a large number of those who go to school on golf scholarships at least hope to join the PGA tour some day, and most of the top American professionals are now college-trained. To a great extent, collegiate competion has replaced caddying as the training ground for future professionals.

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