GolfChannel.com writers won a first-place award Thursday when the Golf Writers Association of America announced winners of its annual writing contest.
Jaime Diaz, Rex Hoggard, Randall Mell, Ryan Lavner, Will Gray and Mercer Baggs combined to win a first-place award for a special project, The Comeback, which looked into the various things Tiger Woods had to overcome in order to win again on the PGA Tour.
Baggs wrote the introductory piece to the project entitled “The Comeback: Tiger’s torturous journey to becoming a champion again.”
Here are the others:
Diaz: Tiger’s journey through personal shame
Hoggard: Tiger’s journey through injury and pain
Mell: Tiger’s journey to public acceptance
Lavner: Tiger’s journey to regaining his fear factor
Gray: Tiger’s journey against the Tiger Effect generation
This was Diaz’ 11th career first-place award. It’s the third for both Mell and Baggs, the second for Lavner and Hoggard, and Gray’s first.
Additionally, Lavner earned a second-place nod in the daily features category where he detailed how Arizona’s Haley Moore went from being bullied to being a hero when she helped her team win the NCAA Championship. Lavner also earned an honorable mention in the game stories category for his piece on Woods’ victory at last year’s Masters.
All winners will be honored at the GWAA’s annual awards dinner April 8 in Augusta, Ga.