Atlantic Golf Club, Betsy King, Craig Currier among other awardees

ELMSFORD, N.Y. (June 9, 2010) — Joe Louis Barrow Jr., the chief executive officer of The First Tee, a youth development organization that fosters the growth of junior golf while teaching life skills and core values, was recognized for his outstanding leadership and achievements by the Metropolitan Golf Writers Association at their 59th National Awards Dinner on Tuesday, June 8, 2010 at the Westchester Marriott in Tarrytown, New York. Barrow received the Gold Tee Award, the MGWA’s highest honor. 

Barrow joined an elite club of distinguished individuals who have received the Gold Tee Award. Past honorees include Bobby Jones, Ben Hogan, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Byron Nelson, Sam Snead, Patty Berg, Nancy Lopez, Annika Sorenstam, Bob Hope and President Gerald R. Ford. 

Other 2010 award winners included LPGA Hall of Famer Betsy King, who received the Winnie Palmer Award, Atlantic Golf Club (Club of the Year) Bob Labbance (Linc Werden Golf Journalism Award), Dan Rooney (Mary Bea Porter Award), and former Bethpage State Park golf superintendent Craig Currier (Distinguished Service Award). Currier, now the head golf superintendent at Glen Oaks Country Club on Long Island, was honored for his leadership during the 2009 U.S. Open at Bethpage, when he and a large volunteer staff of superintendents put in long hours in an unprecedented effort to keep the Black Course playable during unusually heavy rains.

In awarding Barrow with the Gold Tee, the Met Golf Writers honors one of the game’s premier charitable organizations. The local chapter of the national program, The First Tee of Metropolitan New York, was created in 2001 as a joint venture between the MGA Foundation and the Metropolitan Section of the PGA. The chapter has created affordable and accessible golf facilities that bring First Tee programming to young people of all backgrounds throughout the New York metropolitan area. Facilities include The First Tee of Essex County (Newark, N.J.), The First Tee of Nassau County (Eisenhower Park), The Golf Club at Chelsea Piers, The First Tee at Fairchild-Wheeler (Bridgeport, Conn.), and the main chapter location at Mosholu Golf Course in the Bronx. Recently, affiliate sites have been added at the Plainfield West nine-hole course in Edison, N.J., Gull Haven Golf Course in Suffolk County, and at the Brooklyn Golf Center. With this growth, the MGA Foundation and the Met PGA have now expanded their partnership network to include the New Jersey PGA and the The First Tee of Connecticut in Fairfield County.

The MGWA’s National Awards Dinner is the largest (and longest running) golf dinner held annually in the U.S. All of golf’s governing bodies actively support the dinner—the USGA, PGA of America, the LPGA, PGA Tour and Champions Tour—and some 700 industry leaders and local golfers attend. Proceeds from the dinner are distributed to the Metropolitan (New York) area caddie scholarship programs and the MGA Foundation. More than $1 million has been raised over the years for charitable endeavors.

   For additional information, please contact Kate Keller (kate@metgolfwriters.org) at 914-347-4653.