Professional Golfers' Association, (with or without the apostrophe), is the usual term for a professional association in men's golf. It is often abbreviated to PGA. There are several PGAs around the world, including:
- Professional Golfers' Association (Great Britain & Ireland)
- Professional Golfers' Association of America
The women's equivalent is Ladies Professional Golf Association, commonly abbreviated to LPGA. The United States association is called the LPGA. Other women's bodies have territorial designations in their names, like LPGA of Japan or LPGA of Korea.
The organisations which run the world's two leading professional golf tours have the initials PGA in their names, but they are now independent of the Professional Golfers' Associations which established them:
- PGA Tour (which runs the PGA Tour, Champions Tour and Nationwide Tour)
- PGA European Tour (which runs the European Tour, Challenge Tour and European Seniors Tour)
Originally, PGAs were the central bodies for all forms of professional golf in their territories, but now some of them, including those of the United States, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and Ireland, are focused on the needs of the majority of professional golfers who work as club or teaching professionals, as opposed to being tournament professionals.
Famous quotes containing the words professional and/or association:
“... a supportive husband is an absolute requirement for professional women.... He is something she looks for, and when she finds him, she marries him.”
—Alice S. Rossi (b. 1922)
“With all their faults, trade-unions have done more for humanity than any other organization of men that ever existed. They have done more for decency, for honesty, for education, for the betterment of the race, for the developing of character in man, than any other association of men.”
—Clarence Darrow (1857–1938)