Blackwelders to receive Family of the Year Award
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Metropolitan Golf Writers Association 49 Knollwood Road Elmsford, NY 10523 (914) 347-4653
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For immediate release
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BLACKWELDERS TO RECEIVE FAMILY OF THE YEAR AWARD |
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Elmsford, NY (March 4, 2014) – The Blackwelders will receive the Family of the Year Award from the Metropolitan Golf Writers Association at the 63rd National Awards Dinner on Monday, June 23 at the Westchester Marriott in Tarrytown, New York.
Since 1963, the MGWA has honored a family “for its contributions to the game and for representing the virtues and ideals of golf and family.”
The Blackwelders will join an impressive list of families who have been honored; The Turnesas, The Powells, Johnny Farrell, Claude Harmon, Robert Trent Jones, Gary Player, Hollis Stacy, Raymond Floyd, Karsten Solheim, George Bush, Dave Stockton, and Jack Nicklaus.
Myra Blackwelder is the matriarch of this remarkable golf family. Playing 13 years on the LPGA tour, Myra is a mother of two, wife of a tour caddie, and a renowned teacher who founded the Blackwelder Golf Academy in 2010. The native Kentuckian was the 1980 Rolex LPGA Rookie of the Year, then as Myra Van Hoose. Early in her rookie season, Myra hired caddie Worth Blackwelder. After a few tournaments, both agreed that their relationship was more than player-caddie. They married in 1981.
Worth, a respected professional caddie for 27 years, has worked with Chi Chi Rodriguez, Beth Daniel, Patty Sheehan, Dottie Pepper, Juli Inkster, and most recently, Cristie Kerr. Worth has experienced the thrill of sharing victory with his player 12 times during his distinguished career.
Son Myles, 29, is also a pro caddie, working for rising star Jodi Ewart Shadoff of England. During the Solheim Cup last August, Myles and his father were on opposing sides with Ewart Shadoff representing Europe and Kerr the United States. When time permits, Myles works at the family business in Versailles, Kentucky – the Blackwelder Golf Academy – where he has helped build a top-caliber junior program.
Daughter Mallory, 26, is currently playing the Symetra Tour. Like her mom a University of Kentucky grad, Mallory spent two years at the University of Florida before transferring to UK to join her mother Myra, then the new women’s golf coach in Lexington. As a junior, Mallory earned an invite to the 2008 Kraft Nabisco Championship, an LPGA major, and made the cut as an amateur.
After college, Mallory earned conditional status at LPGA Qualifying School for 2010, with Myra and Mallory becoming the first Mother-Daughter duo to receive LPGA membership. Serious health issues, including right elbow surgery, have thus far curtailed Mallory’s goal to play the LPGA tour full-time.
The golfing family gets bigger this fall when Mallory marries Julien Trudeau whom she met in 2011 while the two competed on “Big Break Ireland” on Golf Channel. Trudeau caddies for PGA TOUR standout Graham DeLaet, a fellow Canadian.
“This is quite an honor for a family that has meant a lot to women’s golf and to the LPGA family, said LPGA Commissioner Michael Whan. “We’re lucky to have them as ambassadors for the sport, and I’m personally lucky to call them my friends!”
The Met Golf Writers will also honor Fred Couples (Gold Tee Award) and Nancy Lopez (Winnie Palmer Award). Additional MGWA award recipients will be announced in the coming weeks.
Since 1952, the MGWA has recognized the game’s greatest Players, Contributors, and Organizations at its National Awards Dinner – the longest running and often the largest golf dinner in the U.S. each year.
A special video celebrates the six decades of the Dinner … https://vimeo.com/63849701
Long-time MGWA member Jim Nantz says, “There is no dinner in America that celebrates golf like this one.”
Golf’s leading organizations support the dinner – USGA, PGA of America, PGA TOUR, LPGA, MGA, MetLife, and Rolex. The National Awards Dinner has raised over 1.5 million dollars for Caddie Scholarship programs in the metropolitan New York area; the MGA Foundation; and the Dave Marr Journalism Scholarship at Columbia University.
For tickets or additional information, please contact:
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METROPOLITAN GOLF WRITERS ASSOCIATION