The PGA of America on Tuesday announced Global Golf Post senior writer Lewine Mair as the 2025 recipient of its Lifetime Achievement Award in Journalism. Mair will be honored in April during the ISPS Handa Golf Writers Association of America dinner in Augusta, Georgia.
Mair is the 34th recipient and second woman – after Judy Rankin last year – to receive the PGA Lifetime Achievement Award in Journalism, which recognizes members of the media for their steadfast promotion of golf. She is the third GGP senior writer to receive the honor, following John Hopkins (2013) and Ron Green Jr. (2023).
“Lewine Mair has made an incredible impact on golf journalism while covering our great game,” said PGA of America president Don Rea Jr. “She continues to demonstrate an uncanny ability to discover and tell many of golf’s greatest stories on and off the course.”
Mair, born and raised in Birmingham, England, was a talented youth golfer and competed for Great Britain & Ireland against France at the under-21 level. She became interested in writing after watching three-time British women’s amateur champion, Enid Wilson, cover events for The Daily Telegraph.
“I remember thinking I’d love to do her job,” said Mair.
Mair’s journalism career was up and running when, as a 17-year-old, she was hired to write golf columns for the Birmingham Planet. She was still a teenager when she met her future husband, Norman, an accomplished golf and rugby writer for The Scotsman, and she was only 20 when The Times (London) asked her to fill in on various golf assignments.
Mair accepted a position as a sports feature writer with The Daily Telegraph in 1992 once her four children (Suzi, Logan, Patrick and Michele) were at university. In 1997, Mair earned a highly acclaimed promotion to golf correspondent, becoming the first woman to hold the role at The Daily Telegraph and the first to secure a specialist position on the sports pages of a UK national newspaper – a groundbreaking moment for both her career and sports journalism.
In her new role, Mair traveled the world covering the biggest events in golf. Her focus was often on the “different” storylines of the day – those unfolding off the course, behind the scenes or in unexplored angles of the sport.
“As much as I liked straightforward golf,” said Mair, “I liked the little asides. The story of the day might not have had anything to do with the golf. In fact, it wasn’t too long ago that I was reminded of a tournament at the Chapman Golf Club in Zimbabwe where a killjoy of a crocodile refused to let the might of the European Tour cross the one and only bridge to a green. He, or was it a she, made the headlines.”
Mair served as The Daily Telegraph’s golf correspondent for 12 years before joining GGP in 2010. She continues to cover men’s and women’s events in Europe and the Middle and Far East.
Another story Mair will never forget is the interview she conducted with a centenarian by the name of George Selbach who lived in Crystal River, Florida. She had seen a clip in Golf Digest outlining how Selbach had completed nine holes in 44 shots at the age of 104.
On the day of her first visit, the then 105-year-old did not want to play golf due to lingering injuries sustained playing football in the early 1900s. The two chatted instead, with Selbach showcasing a remarkable memory that encompassed his entire life as he recalled Larry Mize’s closing shots in the 1987 Masters as well as his football career and a match played against legendary Olympian Jim Thorpe.
Mair visited Selbach for a second time when he was 107 and injury free. They played nine holes with two of his 80-plus year old friends.
“He only got out of his buggy to chip and putt, but this former scratch-handicap man was still an expert in that department,” said Mair. “His humour was another thing which never left him. When, at 109, he was no longer able to fend for himself and had to go into a home, he took one look at what would be his fellow residents and asked a mischievous, ‘What are these young things doing sitting round the room?’”
On her second trip to see Selbach, Mair was dispatched to Atlanta, Georgia, to play a round of golf and write a story on “the one-armed bandit,” an ex-crook who had lost the use of his left arm in a brawl. He was said to be a reformed character who had gone on to win a number of one-arm contests and donated some of his prize money to charity. When he pulled into the car park, he asked Mair if she would open the car’s glove pocket and pick out a handful of golf tees. There were no tees, just a gun.
“Thankfully my photographer had turned up at that very moment,” said Mair. “Together we agreed that the sooner I lost my match against this ‘reformed character’ the better.
“As I would discover when I went back to the UK, my opponent had been banned from playing in one-armed events on this side of the Atlantic after winning a long-drive contest using both arms. ‘His very name fills me with trepidation,’ said the one-armed golfers’ honorary secretary. ‘We have banned him for life.’”
Another year, while covering the Masters, Mair read a few headlines about how there wasn’t a single room available in Augusta, Georgia – and she promptly rang the local jail to see if that was true. The jailkeeper assured her that it wasn’t, and invited her to come and see an empty cell for herself. That turned into a still better tale when, a day or so later, she was able to reassure the wide-eyed writer who had spent a night in the jail for a drinking and driving offence that she, too, had been in that establishment.
Mair served as The Daily Telegraph’s golf correspondent for 12 years before joining GGP in 2010. She continues to cover men’s and women’s events in Europe and the Middle and Far East.
The Association of Golf Writers (AGW) appointed Mair its president in 2021, making her the first woman to serve in that role in the then-83-year history of the organization. Mair previously served as the AGW’s first woman chairman from 2007-10 and helped the membership expand to countries outside of Europe, including India.
She has twice been featured on the short-list for British Sports Writer of the Year, was a runner-up in the American Golf Writers’ News award and notably won the Rolex Award for her coverage of women’s golf.
Additionally, Mair is the author of several books including the autobiographies of Colin Montgomerie and Laura Davies. Reflecting on her sports writing career spanning more than 50 years and countless memorable stories, Mair is grateful for her experiences and remains passionate about her craft.
“To win this PGA award is such an honour,” said Mair. “Writing isn’t always easy and, as one of the few women in the trade, the fact that I’ve tended to be a bit of a loner as opposed to ‘one of the boys’ has made it still more special.
“Even now, the job continues to mean as much to me as it ever did. I wake up every morning thinking, ‘What have I got to write today?’”
PGA of America