Jenkins Gets Eighth Award from Golf Writers Association


Golf Digest's Dan Jenkins picked up the eighth win of his storied career and Sports Illustrated's Alan Shipnuck was a double winner in the Golf Writers Association of America's annual writing contest.

Jenkins won the Non-Daily Column category with a column on Old Money vs. New Money. His first win was in the organization's inaugural contest in 1957 when he won the features category writing for the Fort Worth Press. He won that category again in 1962 and, after moving to Sports Illustrated, won the Non-Daily award from1969-1971. His last three wins have been for stories written for Golf Digest.

Shipnuck won both the Internet and Non-Daily News categories. His Internet win was for a story on the beginning of the Tiger Woods "death watch." He also finished second in that category with a story on Phil Mickelson and John Daly making their returns in Memphis. His story on Angel Cabrera's win at the Masters was the Non-Daily winner.

Michael Bamberger picked up a career fifth win - and the third first-place for Sports Illustrated this year - with a Non-Daily feature on Rory McIlroy.

Ian O'Connor of The Record and PGATOUR.com's Mike McAllister both picked up their second consecutive column awards - O'Connor in Daily Columns; McAllister in Internet Columns. O'Connor's column was on Phil Mickelson showing heart in his U.S. Open loss, while McAllister wrote about Tom Watson's dream falling short at Turnberry.

Scott Michaux of The Augusta Chronicle grabbed his fourth career win for a feature on Errie Ball, the last living competitor from the first Masters. Fanhouse.com's Mick Elliott got his second career first-place for an Internet feature on Ken Green starting his comeback following a horrific car accident.

First-time winners were Doug Ferguson of the Associated Press who won the Daily Special Project category with a series on slow progress - and optimism - by African Americans in golf and Ron Krochick of the San Francisco Chronicle who won Daily News with his second-round story from the Presidents Cup.

Golf Digest Companies won the Non-Daily Special Projects category for the sixth consecutive year and swept the category. The winning project was on Golf and the environment. Golfweek won first place in Internet Special Projects

All winners will be honored at the GWAA's Annual Awards Dinner April 7 in Augusta, Ga.

2010 GWAA CONTEST RESULTS

The following is a full list of the winners, including honorable mentions. There were 444 entries in the contest. (Note: *Categories with less 20 entries had first, second and third places only; **category with fewer than 10 entries had first place only.)

DAILY

DAILY COLUMNS - 1, Ian O'Connor, The Record, "Mickelson shows heart in defeat"; 2, Bill Dwyre, Los Angeles Times, David Duval's extraordinary run in the U.S. Open; 3, Doug Ferguson, Associated Press, "Cink shows graciousness in Open win." Honorable mention: Bill Dwyre, Los Angeles Times, "Soggy Bethpage Black not the usual U.S. Open test"; Ron Green, Jr., Charlotte Observer, "By going away, Tiger Woods can start to find his way back"; Marla Ridenour, Akron Beacon Journal, "Marlsaeng's improbable journey."

DAILY NEWS - 1, Ron Kroichick, San Francisco Chronicle, "Presidents Cup, round two"; 2, Gary D'Amato, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "Yang pulls a shocker"; 3, David Westin, The Augusta Chronicle, "Cabrera wins three-man playoff at Masters." Honorable mention: Gary D'Amato, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "Wie has coming out party at the Solheim Cup"; Ron Green, Jr., Charlotte Observer, "Lucas Glover wins U.S. Open, proves he's good enough"; Mike Kern, Philadelphia Daily News, "Yang beats Tiger at the PGA"; Ian O'Connor, The Record, "Perry loses the Masters."

DAILY FEATURES - 1, Scott Michaux, The Augusta Chronicle, "Errie Ball, last living competitor in the first Masters"; 2, Ian O'Connor, The Record, "Rocco's loss was Rocco's gain"; 3, Ron Kroichick, San Francisco Chronicle, "The 40th anniversary of George Archer's Masters win." Honorable mention: Doug Ferguson, The Associated Press, "Public personality of Bethpage Black"; Doug Ferguson, The Associated Press, "Mystique of the Masters green jacket"; Hank Gola, New York Daily News, "Sergio returns to New York for the U.S. Open"; Randall Mell, Sun Sentinel, "Ernie Els and Dan Marino brought together by their autistic children."

DAILY SPECIAL PROJECTS - 1, Doug Ferguson, The Associated Press, "African American progress in golf slow, but optimism remains."

INTERNET

INTERNET COLUMNS - 1, Mike McAllister, PGATOUR.COM, "Watson's miracle falls short"; 2, Leonard Shapiro, Washingtonpost.com, "Tiger Woods: Who knew?"; 3, Jeff Neuman, RealClearSports.com, "A call to the sports therapy hotline about Tiger." Honorable mention: Jeff Babineau, Golfweek.com, "Tiger Woods has the lead at the PGA Championship, but doesn't appear to be invincible"; Tim Rosaforte GolfDigest.com, "Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus"; Helen Ross, PGATOUR.COM, "Tom Watson loses a heartbreaker at Turnberry"; Dave Shedloski, USGA.org, "How Lucas Glover won the 109th U.S. Open."

INTERNET NEWS - 1, Alan Shipnuck, Golf.com, "Tiger 'death watch' begins"; 2, Alan Shipnuck, Golf.com, "Phil Mickelson and John Daly in Memphis"; 3, Cameron Morfit, Golf.com, "Doug Barron Faces uncertain future." Honorable mention: Michael Bamberger, Golf.com, "Soldiers going to Iraq at Augusta airport"; Damon Hack, Golf.com, "Stewart Cink ends Tom Watson's run"; Jason Sobel, ESPN.com, "Slocum surprises at Barclays."

INTERNET FEATURES - 1, Mick Elliott, FanHouse.com/AOL Sports, "Dream still in sight for Ken Green"; 2, Jason Sobel, ESPN.com, "Arnold Palmer turns 80"; 3, Mike McAllister, PGATOUR.COM, "10-year-old course designer." Honorable mention: Rhonda Glenn, USGA.org, "Betty Jameson was a rare character"; Helen Ross, PGATOUR.COM, "Lucas Glover wins the U.S. Open"; Brian Wacker, PGATOUR.COM, "Behind the scenes in the fitness trailer."

* INTERNET SPECIAL PROJECTS - 1, Jeff Babineau, Jim McCabe, Rich Skyzinski, Ron Balicki, Alistair Tait, James Achenbach, Adam Schupak, Bradley S. Klein, Dan Mirocha, Golfweek.com; "Memories of Payne Stewart"; 2, Mercer Baggs, Randall Mell, Jay Coffin, Rex Hoggard, Rich Lerner, GolfChannel.com, "An unforgettable decade"; 3, Erik Peterson, GolfChannel.com, "Sleeping in the car to play Bethpage Black."

NON-DAILY

NON-DAILY COLUMNS - 1, Dan Jenkins, Golf Digest Index, "Old Money vs. New Money"; 2, Jeff Babineau, Golfweek, "Tom Watson makes a run at his sixth Open Championship"; 3, Dave Seanor, "Asian Golf Monthly, Futuristic look at the LPGA." Honorable mention: Tom Coyne, Sports Illustrated, "Ireland and the 9-hole game"; Dan Jenkins, Golf Digest, "Greg Norman-Chris Evert marriage set to the movie Casablanca"; Jeff Rude, Golfweek, "O'Meara's recovery shot - from darkness to light."

NON-DAILY NEWS - 1, Alan Shipnuck, Sports Illustrated, "Angel Cabrera wins Masters"; 2, Jim Moriarty, Golf World, "Stewart Cink defeats Tom Watson at Turnberry"; 3, Jeff Rude, Golfweek, "Demise of the golf writer." Honorable mention: Beth Ann Baldry, Gene Yasuda, Golfweek, "Why Carolyn Bivens failed"; Jim McCabe, Golfweek, "Masters returns to its glory as Angel Cabrera beats Kenny Perry"; Jeff Rude, Golfweek, "Cruel in the Sun: Cink ruins Watson's fairytale."

NON-DAILY FEATURES - 1, Michael Bamberger, Sports Illustrated, "Rory McIlroy"; 2, John Feinstein, Golf Digest, "Paul Goydos and the affliction that claimed his wife's life"; 3, Dave Kindred, Golf Digest, "Ken Green after the accident that claimed his girlfriend, his brother and his dog." Honorable mention: Alan Bastable, Golf Magazine, "Bob Torrance"; Alan Shipnuck, Sports Illustrated, "Michelle Wie"; John Strege, Golf World, "Missy Farr-Kaye's battle with breast cancer."

* NON-DAILY SPECIAL PROJECTS - 1, David Owen, Ron Whitten, John Barton, Roger Schiffman, Thomas L. Friedman, Golf Digest, "Golf and the environment"; 2, Steve Rushin, Ron Kaspriske, Ashley Mayo, Jeff Patterson, Sue Sawyer, Mike Stachura, Golf Digest, "Celebration of municipal golf courses"; 3, Jaime Diaz, Bill Fields, E. Michael Johnson, Tim Rosaforte, John Strege, Golf World, "New groove rules."