The sun was shining and the stars were out at the 52nd Annual Golf Writers Dinner recently held at Spanish Bay Inn. Mitch Juricich of Hooked On Golf took the baton from long time Master of Ceremony Bob Murphy and did a great job. The banquet opened with the bagpiper marching the sold out crowd into the banquet hall. A video of "Murph" opened the banquet to remind everyone that his "Irish humor" would be eternal.
MJ Mc Colgan, 3 time National Special Olympics Golf champion and many others received kudos at the dinner before the awards were presented. The Outstanding Achievement Award was received by one of the young gun golfers Ricky Fowler. The Media Person of the year was awarded to Bob Thomas and the Good Guy award was presented to former Giants owner Bob Lurie. The highlight of the evening was the Jack Lemmon Ambassador Of Golf Award presented to San Francisco Giants World Champion announcers Mike Krukow and Duane Kuiper. The crowd was electric as "Kruk and Kuipe" were introduced. The eloquent acceptance speeches were full of "Giant" energy just like Jack Lemmon's passion for the game of golf. They were fueled with extra energy as they won the first annual $100,000 Charity Match earlier in the day against the San Francisco 49ers. They were still bragging about Matt Cain's 360 yard drive on number 3.
This year a new twist in the awards occurred as 4 "Giant" contributors in the game of golf were inducted in the first NCGA Hall Of Fame class. Besides winning many golf tournaments and being former USGA Presidents and true lovers of the game, the happiness flowed from each of these great men's lips as they talked about golf and their contributions to this great game. Their humble acceptance and appreciation of these awards were felt by everyone in the room. Honorees were Jack Bariteau, C. Grant Spaeth, Frank "Sandy" Tatum, and Ken Venturi.
CBS announcer and long time friend of Ken Venturi Jim Nantz, showed up for Ken's presentation and echoed the professionalism and class of Ken's stellar career in golf with some emotional and heartfelt comments.
Mitch closed the banquet by asking this group of special golfers and human beings who have played at every great course in the world with an interesting question. What was their favorite hole ever played? The resounding answer was number 15 and 16 at Cypress Point. No surprise to me as Pebble Beach is "God's Home Of Golf." The warm and sunny weather forecast the entire week will make for an extra special golf tournament this year as spectators will be able to watch their favorite golfers and famous celebrity's in sports, music, movies and life.
Enjoy see you next year at number 53!
