Fay, Davies among GWAA award recipients

• By Will Gray
• Jan 4, 2013 10:18 AM ET

Former U.S. Golf Association executive director David Fay and LPGA great Laura Davies will both be honored with awards from the Golf Writers' Association of America at a ceremony later this year.

Fay, who retired from the USGA in 2010 after 21 years as executive director, was instrumental in bringing the U.S. Open to public venues, first in 2002 at Bethpage Black and again in both 2008 at Torrey Pines and for a second time at Bethpage the following year. He will receive the William D. Richardson Award, given to individuals who have consistently made an outstanding contribution to golf. Past recipients of the award, given annually by the GWAA since 1946, include Ben Hogan, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and President Dwight Eisenhower.

Davies, who became the first non-American to win the LPGA money title when she did so in 1994, will receive the ASAPSports/Jim Murray Award. Offered to a golfer for cooperation, quotability and accommodation with the media, the award will go to the affable Davies over Greg Norman and Luke Donald, who were both finalists this year. A winner of 82 events worldwide, the Englishwoman remains the only player to have participated in all 12 Solheim Cups and was named the GWAA's Player of the Year in both 1994 and 1996. Prior recipients include Nick Price, Nancy Lopez and Padraig Harrington.

A third award winner was also announced, as David Meador will receive the Ben Hogan Award for remaining active in golf despite a physical handicap or serious illness. Meador, who lost his sight in a car accident at age 18, won the National Blind Golf Championship in 1977, 2011 and 2012. A past president of the U.S. Blind Golf Association, he has also successfully battled Hodgkin's Disease and colon cancer, and will now receive an award that has previously gone to Sophie Gustafson, Lee Trevino, Ken Venturi and Paul Azinger among others.

Each of the three honorees will receive their award at the annual GWAA awards dinner, April 10 in Augusta, Ga. There the group will also honor its Players of the Year for 2012: Rory McIlroy, Stacy Lewis and Roger Chapman.