The PGA of America has named Lewine Mair as the recipient of the 2025 PGA Lifetime Achievement Award in Journalism.
Mair and her outstanding career will be honoured in April during the 51st annual ISPS Handa GWAA Dinner in Augusta, Georgia.
The PGA of America’s Lifetime Achievement Award in Journalism recognises members of the media for their steadfast promotion of golf. Mair, 78, who currently serves as a Senior Writer for Global Golf Post, is the 34th recipient and second woman to receive the PGA Lifetime Achievement Award in Journalism.
“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. On behalf of the more than 30,000 PGA of America Golf Professionals nationwide, I congratulate Lewine on this recognition highlighting her wonderful career.”
Born and raised in Birmingham, England, Mair was a talented junior 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 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 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 happenings in golf. Her focus was often on the behind-the-scenes storylines of the day — those events unfolding off the course 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.”
One year, while covering the Masters, Mair read a few headlines about how there wasn’t a single room available in Augusta and promptly rang the local jail to see if that was true. The Governor 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 offense that she, too, had been in that establishment.
Mair served as the Daily Telegraph’s golf correspondent for 12 years before joining Global Golf Post 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 President in 2021, making her the first woman President in the then-83-year history of the organisation. 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 shortlist 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?’”