Writers make choices

The Golf Writers Association of America, of which I am a member, doled out three prestigious awards in recent days. Former Nationwide Tour player Erik Compton, a two-time heart transplant recipient, won the Ben Hogan Award for remaining active in golf despite a physical handicap or serious illness. Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist Furman Bisher, 90, who I can call a friend and has been with the AJC for more than 50 years, won the William D. Richardson Award, given annually to recognize individuals who have consistently made an outstanding contribution to golf. Hall of Famer Juli Inkster is the ASAPSports/Jim Murray Award winner for cooperation, quotability and accommodation to the media and for reflecting the most positive aspects of the working relationship between athlete and journalists. They will be honored, along with GWAA Players of the Year Padraig Harrington, Lorena Ochoa and Jay Haas at the annual GWAA Awards Dinner during Masters week in Augusta, Ga.
Compton, 28, has been an inspiration on and off the course for his entire career. He had his first transplant at the age of 12, but went on to play on the U.S. Walker Cup team. He competed on the Nationwide Tour for six seasons. He suffered a heart attack last spring and underwent a second transplant in May.  Last fall, just five months after that transplant, he made it through the first stage of the PGA Tour Qualifying School, but fell short in the second stage. A few weeks later, he made the cut at the Children's Miracle Network Classic. Compton beat Todd Demsey and Billy Mayfair in the Hogan balloting.
Bisher began his golf writing career at the 1938 Greater Greensboro Open when he covered the event for a college journalism assignment at North Carolina and has covered every Masters since 1950. The 48-year-old Inkster is sometimes entertaining but is always one of the most honest players in the game. She seldom denies a request for interview, and I remember one instance when she waited for the media in near darkness and in near tears and answered several questions after blowing a three-stroke with three holes to play to Grace Park in 2000 at Wachesaw East.