Golf writers dole out yearly honors at Augusta
It may be April 2017, but that’s still not too late to honor what took place in 2016. That’s what the Golf Writers Association of America did last night in its 45th Annual ISPS HANDA Awards Dinner, presented by the PGA of America, the PGA TOUR and USGA. Held at the Savannah Rapids Pavilion in Augusta, the dinner has been traditionally conducted on the eve of the Masters to honor the players of the year on the PGA, LPGA and Champions tours, which were Dustin Johnson, Ariya Jutanugarn and Bernhard Langer. (Johnson was unable to attend due to the back injury he suffered in the afternoon.) This was Langer’s third POY honor, but the first for the other two.
Beyond the on-course awards, the GWAA has a unique set of honors that mainly deal with character. This year’s tributes went to former PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem (William D. Richardson Award for outstanding contributions to golf), Gene Sauers (Ben Hogan Award for someone who overcame a serious illness or physical handicap), and Ben Crenshaw and Stewart Cink (cowinners of the ASAP Sports/Jim Murray Award given for the positive aspects of the working relationship between athletes and journalists).
Also awarded was the Charlie Bartlett Award to Peter Jacobsen for outstanding contributions given for the betterment of society. And Larry Dorman was given the PGA of America Lifetime Achievement Award in Journalism.
Listing the names of Sauers and Jacobsen bring to mind encounters with them that were indicative of the awards they received. I did a Tour Tip with Sauers for Golf Digest in the 1990s when he played the regular tour, and he impressed me with his earnestness, and his quiet nature, which were indicators of his future ability to fight off a skin disease called Stevens-Johnson Syndrome.
As for the loquacious Jacobsen, he often donated his time to D.A. Weibring at his charity event held for the Illinois State University golf team, and I saw how the happy-go-lucky nature Jake shows on golf broadcasts and his comedy bits are real and tangible parts of his personality. One year he stood on a par-3 tee as pro-am groups came through, hitting a tee shot for each foursome, and in-between groups he would listen to Jethro Tull music blaring from a souped-up golf cart, balancing himself on one leg and mimicking playing the flute, a la Ian Anderson. It was a classic image of the fun-loving Jacobsen.