Graeme McDowell of Northern Ireland was selected by the Golf Writers Association of America to receive the 2014 ASAP Sports/Jim Murray Award for his accommodation to the media.
The award is named for the late Jim Murray, considered by many to be the greatest sportswriter of all-time, who was an award-winning columnist for the Los Angeles Times from 1961 until his death in 1998.
Ken Duke, who claimed his first PGA Tour victory last year in the Travelers Championship at the age of 44, was named winner of the Ben Hogan Award Presented by ISPS Handa, for remaining active in golf despite a physical disability.
Rhonda Glenn, 67, who served in the communications department of the United States Golf Association for 47 years before her retirement last summer, will receive the William D. Richardson Award for consistently making outstanding contributions to golf.
“I take my relationship with the media very seriously,” said McDowell, who captured the 2010 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach. “I’m pretty honest to a fault at times. It’s very important to me.
“You guys give us exposure globally. You’re a very important cog in the whole golf — and sports — machine. It’s important — good, bad or ugly — to give you an idea of what’s going on in my head and with my game.”
Duke has a 16-inch metal rod attached to his spine, surgically placed there when he was 15. He played high school golf with a back brace, turned pro in 1994 and played all over the world before qualifying for the PGA Tour in 2004, winning the Travelers in his 187th start on the circuit.
Glenn, 67, has written several books, including “The Illustrated History of Women’s Golf” and “Breaking the Mold,” the story of Judy Bell, the first woman to be president of the USGA.
The awards will be presented on April 9 at the annual GWAA Awards Dinner in Augusta, Ga., the night before the start of the Masters.
