Wright earns USGA's highest honor
Four-time U.S. Women's Open champion Mickey Wright will receive the United States Golf Association's 2010 Bob Jones Award, it was announced on Wednesday.
"It's very nice to be remembered," said Wright, who also counts the 1952 U.S. Girls' Junior Championship among her five USGA titles. "The USGA has always meant a great deal to me, and it means a lot that they think enough of me to give me the award."
Among those who have won the award named for the highly decorated amateur are Francis Ouimet (1955), Babe Zaharias ('57), Gary Player ('66), Arnold Palmer ('71), Byron Nelson ('74), Jack Nicklaus ('75), Ben Hogan ('76) and George H.W. Bush (2008).
In addition to Wright's four Open titles, she owns 82 total LPGA victories and 13 major championships. She held all four major titles over a 12-month span in 1961-62, was the LPGA's leading money winner four times and won the Vare Trophy for lowest scoring average five consecutive years (1960-64) and served as LPGA president in 1963 and 1964.
"Devoted to perfection, she nevertheless remains one of the most gracious people in all of sport," former USGA president Judy Bell wrote in support of Wright's nomination. "Modest as a winner, generous when she was so rarely defeated, Mickey Wright personifies the code of the true champion. ... No one has loved the game more than Mickey Wright."
Presented annually since 1955, the USGA's highest honor is given in recognition of distinguished sportsmanship in golf. According to a USGA statement, the award "seeks to recognize a person who emulates Jones' spirit, his personal qualities and his attitude toward the game and its players."
Jason Sobel is a golf writer for ESPN.com
