Player to receive Jim Murray/ASAP Sports Award

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LA QUINTA, Calif. -- Gary Player, the 1961, 1974 and 1978 Masters champion, will receive the Jim Murray/ASAP Sports Award on Wednesday, April 9, 2008, at the Golf Writers Association of America (GWAA) Awards Dinner in Augusta, Ga. Linda McCoy-Murray, widow of Jim Murray, the late, Pulitzer Prize-winning sports columnist for The Los Angeles Times, will present the award.

Gary Player has always been a great communicator. (Condon/PGA TOUR/WireImage)

Sponsored by ASAP, a system designed to instantaneously produce verbatim transcripts of press conferences, the award was established by the Golf Writers Association of America to honor Murray, based on a golfer's cooperation with the media.

"Like Jim Murray, Gary Player has impeccable values and is admired all over the world," said Linda McCoy-Murray. "What Jim wrote of Gary Player 45 years ago holds true today: 'Gary chats with the gallery, calls newspapermen "Mister," and thinks the pro circuit is more fun than a seat at the Coronation.' I'm elated that Gary is being honored on this 10th anniversary year of Jim's passing."

Player, who turned professional in 1953, is the winner of nine major championships, 24 PGA TOUR events, 19 Champions Tour events, and has won 163 tournaments worldwide. He is the only golfer of the 20th Century to win a British Open title in each of the past three decades and he is a recipient of the South African Sportsman of the Century Award.

Inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1974, Player joined the Champions Tour in 1985 and was captain of the International team for the 2003, 2005 and 2007 Presidents Cups. An accomplished golf course designer, Player also owns a stud farm outside Johannesburg where he breeds racehorses.

Jim Murray, a founding father of Sports Illustrated in 1953 who died August 16, 1998, joined The Los Angeles Times in 1961. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1990, and was a 14-time winner of the "National Sportswriter of the Year" award. His extraordinary work as a journalist landed him a spot in the writers' wing in Cooperstown Baseball Hall of Fame in 1988.

Linda McCoy-Murray established the Jim Murray Memorial Foundation (JMMF), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, in 1999 to perpetuate her late husband's memory and his love and dedication to his extraordinary career in journalism.

The JMMF mission is to support the education of outstanding print journalism students, selected through an essay competition at universities across the country. As of 2008, the scholarships have been increased from $5,000 to $7,500 each. A total of 63 scholarship winners are proudly called "Murray Scholars."

For more information on the Jim Murray Memorial Foundation, e-mail MurrayScholars@aol.com or check out the JMMF Website http://www.jimmurrayfoundation.org.