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World Golf Put up’s Lewine Mair receives PGA of America Lifetime Achievement Award in Journalism.

It might not be appreciated fairly how robust the custom of girls writing about golf in nationwide newspapers has been in the UK.

Liz Kahn was the forerunner on the The Each day Telegraph within the Nineteen Sixties, when she lined males’s skilled golf as a result of there was no girls’s skilled golf. Enid Wilson, who gained the British Ladies’s Newbie championship thrice in a row from 1931, wrote about girls’s golf on the identical paper. Patricia Davies, who was married to the late Dai Davies of The Guardian, wrote for The Occasions, primarily about girls’s golf. Elspeth Burnside was an ever-present freelance contributor at golf occasions within the days when newspapers printed extra golf than they do now. Lauren St John, now an writer of well-liked kids’s books, lined golf for The Sunday Occasions for a decade in direction of the tip of the final millennium.

However probably the most eminent identify and feminine voice on golf issues in the UK for years has been that of Lewine Mair, my World Golf Put up colleague who has simply been named the 2025 recipient of the PGA of America’s Lifetime Achievement Award in Journalism, the third GGP contributor to be so honoured after this author in 2013 and Ron Inexperienced Jr. in 2023. Mair is the one girl to have been appointed golf correspondent – not girls’s golf correspondent – of a British nationwide newspaper, The Each day Telegraph.

“Lewine, Patricia and I travelled collectively within the States somewhat,” Kahn stated. “We have been fairly a threesome. She was a pleasure to work with, very useful, very chatty. She has a really good approach of expressing herself. She is superb at discovering tales. Patricia was very enthusiastic about clothes and Lewine was excellent at aiding her. I used to be very enthusiastic about minerals and the opposite two helped me with that.”

Davies stated: “Lewine was all the time encouraging me to spend my cash on costly garments in costly retailers in locations like Palm Springs, however I acquired my very own again on her when she had grandchildren and I might discover costly garments for her to purchase for them.

“I’ve large admiration for Lewine as a result of she was juggling so many balls,” Davies continued. “She had 4 kids. She labored continuous and she or he taken care of Norman [her husband]. She is an excellent sniffer out of tales, has an excellent sense of mischief and talks to folks. And whenever you discuss to folks you get tales.

“It will not be unfair to say she will be able to’t prepare dinner. She’s a garbage prepare dinner, however that’s as a result of it doesn’t curiosity her and she or he is so good at so many different issues. She is a gifted artist, she will be able to play the piano superbly and she or he was an excellent golfer. In reality, she is sickeningly proficient.”

“I gained £70 in my first match and was given a cheque by that very good man Barry Edwards – and the cheque bounced.” — Lewine Mair

Mair wrote columns and profiles for Ladies & Golf journal for 15 years. “I cherished working along with her,” Alison Root, a former editor of the journal, stated. “We had an important working relationship. What struck me about Lewine was the way in which she will be able to glean info that different writers can’t. She asks uncommon questions with such an enthralling smile and look of innocence on her face that nobody can take offence.”

Mair’s success as a lady in a predominantly man’s world and her standing amongst primarily male golf writers is such that she is the present president of the Affiliation of Golf Writers, having been chairman from 2007-10. She was all the time involved in regards to the consolation of golf writers who spend hours at their desks every day and was a member of a small and choose AGW committee appointed to enhance the standard of the seating within the press room. As such she grew to become referred to as the “chair particular person” of the chair committee of the AGW. This want to seek out snug chairs is why to at the present time she will be able to typically be seen typing away whereas perched atop two, typically three, chairs.

She is understood additionally for having a lower than robust grasp of expertise, for making and receiving phone calls to debate golf from inconceivable locations similar to her hairdresser’s chair, and for loving cats nearly as a lot as her 4 kids, six granddaughters and one grandson. It shouldn’t be forgotten that she was among the many first girls golf professionals at the beginning of the Girls European Tour. “I gained £70 in my first match and was given a cheque by that very good man Barry Edwards – and the cheque bounced,” she stated.

Lewine Mair, along with her grandson Alex Mair (left), captain of the Cambridge College golf group, and son Logan Mair. Courtesy Lewine Mair

When Norman, her late husband and himself a distinguished sports activities journalist, was in a care house, Lewine used to go and play the piano to the residents. Later, she wrote an acclaimed e book about this – Tapping Ft: A Double-take on Care Properties and Dementia.

At golf occasions Mair’s modus operandi was to maneuver round quietly, pricking her ears for an excellent line, seeing and never all the time telling and all the time asking the final query in a fairly conspiratorial approach. A straw hat could be on her head, a pocket book can be in her hand, a cup of decaffeinated tea, espresso or a glass of water not removed from her desk on which rested her phone.

I do know this as a result of for years she and I have been rivals, she on The Each day Telegraph and I on The Occasions. When Michele, her daughter, started working in golf for the Worldwide Administration Group and thus appeared typically at golf occasions, I felt surrounded by Mairs and referred to Michele as “DomDR” – daughter of my lethal rival.

I quickly realised Lewine had sure habits simply as I’m certain she seen mine. When her phone rang she would choose up the receiver with the pace of sunshine. It may need been her workplace nevertheless it may additionally have been a son or daughter or a grandchild, and if it was a member of the family a smile would unfold over her face. Typically these conversations can be terminated fairly abruptly with Lewine saying: “Sorry. Received to go and interview Tiger Woods (or Nick Faldo or Colin Montgomerie). Discuss later.”

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