Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates: The past three Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific (WAAP) winners will be bidding for glory for their respective countries in this week’s Women’s World Amateur Team Championship.

Japan’s Mizuki Hashimoto (2021), Chinese Taipei’s Tiffany Huang Ting-hsuan (2022) and Thailand’s Eila Galitsky (2023) are all in the starting line-up for the 30th edition of the Espirito Santo Trophy which tees-off tomorrow at Abu Dhabi Golf Club.

The event which features three-player teams from 36 nations also includes Avani Prashanth of India, individual winner at this year’s Queen Sirikit Cup.

She is one of seven members of the Asia-Pacific Golf Confederation (APGC) team that contested the Patsy Hankins Trophy against the European Golf Association in Spain at the start of August that are in the starting line-up, the others being Hashimoto, Huang, Kim Min-sol (Korea), Fiona Xu (New Zealand) and Australians Caitlin Peirce and Maddison Hinson-Tolchard.

The Espirito Santo Trophy was presented in 1964 as the prize for the Women’s World Amateur Team Championship of the International Golf Federation (then called the World Amateur Golf Council) by Silvia Espirito Santo Silva of the Ricardo Espirito Santo family of Portugal. The trophy was presented through the Portuguese Golf Federation.

What began as a proposal match in 1964 between the United States and France grew into the Women’s World Amateur Team Championship.

The impetus for this championship was an invitation for the USA Curtis Cup team to stop off in France for an informal match after that year’s Curtis Cup match.

The USGA accepted the invitation, but also suggested inviting other nations to create a women’s counterpart to the World Amateur Team Championship. A total of 25 teams and 75 players participated, which instantly established the competition as a member of international golf’s family of championships.

In 1966, the World Amateur Golf Council assumed sponsorship of future Women’s World Amateur Team Championships. For the first time, in 2002, the championship for the Espirito Santo Trophy was played on two courses.

Lydia Ko, who represented New Zealand in 2012 at Gloria Golf Club in Antalya, Turkey, holds the individual 72-hole scoring record of 274.

Other prominent players who have participated include Pak Se-ri and Ryu So-yeon (Korea), Karrie Webb and Minjee Lee (Australia), Tseng Ya-ni (Chinese Taipei), Ai Miyazato (Japan), Annika Sorenstam, Anna Nordqvist and Caroline Hedwall (Sweden), Lorena Ochoa (Mexico), Paula Creamer (US), Melissa Reid (England), Carlota Ciganda (Spain), Brooke Henderson (Canada), Celine Boutier (France) and Leona Maguire (Ireland).