Warren Little/R&A
Lewine Mair is the first woman elected to be president of the Association of Golf Writers in the U.K.

By Tod Leonard
The two largest associations of golf media are now led by women. On Wednesday at the Open Championship in Sandwich, England, Lewine Mair was appointed as the president of the United Kingdom-based Association of Golf Writers (AGW), becoming the first woman to hold the post in group’s 83-year history. Mair’s ascension follows the election in April of Beth Ann Nichols to the presidency of the Golf Writers Association of America (GWAA). Nichols, a senior writer at Golfweek, also is the first woman to lead the GWAA in its 75-year existence.

Mair, a senior writer for Global Golf Post, takes over following the passing of the previous president, Jock MacVicar, who died in April. Mair already has been a groundbreaking figure in sports journalism. According to a profile of Mair in the New York Times, in 1997 she became the first woman to serve as the golf correspondent for the U.K.’s Daily Telegraph. In fact, she was the first woman to hold a primary beat position among all national papers in the U.K.

“I can’t tell you how honored I feel to be named as the first woman president of the AGW and to be following in the footsteps of so many well-known AGW writers,” Mair said in a statement released by the AGW.

She started her writing career at 17, penning golf columns for the Birmingham Planet while attending school. Mair was hired at the Daily Telegraph in 1992 as a sports feature writer after raising four children. Mair, a 43-year member of the AGW, has written several books, including the autobiographies of Colin Montgomerie and Laura Davies. Her late husband, Norman Mair, was a noted sports journalist whose specialties were rugby and golf.

Mair was an accomplished golfer in her youth, playing for Great Britain & Ireland at the Under-21 level.

Nichols, meantime, has been a golf writer for nearly 20 years. She played college golf at Florida Southern and was spurred by a sports writing class to pursue journalism. Nichols began her career at Golfweek while still in college and remains there as one of the leading authorities and voices in the women’s game.