After sponsoring only basketball for its first 30 years of existence, the Iowa Girl's High School Athletic Union decided to expand sports offerings for high school girls beginning with the 1955-56 school year. Softball was added as a fall sport, while golf and tennis championships were added for the spring. While this was the first time golf was sponsored by the IGHSAU, it was not the first time girls had taken part in a state meet. The IHSAA had allowed schools to have girls on their team in the past (including Phyllis Otto, who finished tied for fifth in the individual standings at the 1942 state meet), and open state meets for juniors had been held in the summer for many years. However, this would be the first time girls-only team scores were kept. 

Unlike softball and basketball, which was played mostly by small, rural schools, golf was quickly taken up at the state's largest schools. Initially, the event was staged as a single-class open tournament, but beginning in 1980 competition was split into three classes, and participation was standardized so that only six teams per class, as well as top placing individuals at the qualifying district meets, would take part in the state meet. But, while team competition was now classed, individual competition was not, and individual medalist continued to be determined based on how their score measured up against the entire field through the 1988 tournament, after which medalist was named for each class. Competition expanded to four classes in 2004, then briefly to five classes from 2012 to 2017, before going back to four. 

Beginning in 1970, the IHSAA began co-sponsorship, along with the IGHSAU, of a coed golf tournament in which one boy and one girl from a school compose a team that competes against duos from other schools. Initially, winners were determined based on the combined scores from both players after each playing two rounds, with separate medalists honors awarded to the lowest-score male and lowest score female; but since 1988, the format of the tournament has been alternate shot, with no individual honors awarded. Coed tournament winners can be found on both the boy's and girl's team pages on this site and at the link above.