The R&A is pleased to announce that the Mark H McCormack Medal will be presented annually to the leading player in the World Amateur Golf Ranking. The ranking is a weekly performance table of the world’s top 1200 players in men’s amateur golf, and reflects player performance over the previous 52 weeks.
The inaugural medal winner will be the player who leads the World Amateur Golf Ranking on Sunday 23 September 2007, at the end of week 38. This timing allows ranking points in the US Amateur Championship and the European Individual Amateur Championship to be taken into account with the medal presentation then forming a new closing highlight to the world amateur golf season.
The medal commemorates the contribution to golf of Mark H McCormack, the late founder of IMG, who was elected a member of The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews in 1981.
The R&A Chief Executive Peter Dawson commented,
"This is a fitting way to pay tribute to the legacy of a man who contributed so much to the game of golf around the world.
"Having been an able and enthusiastic player of the game at amateur level, and actively involved in the establishment of the Official World Golf Ranking for professionals, Mark would, I am sure, have shared our golf development aim in establishing The R&A World Amateur Golf Ranking.
"We are delighted that the leading amateur player over the season will win the award that bears his name."
Mark McCormack was instrumental in the growth of world golf. It was whilst playing college golf for The College of William and Mary in Virginia that he came up against a young Wake Forest golfer named Arnold Palmer. This meeting led to the celebrated handshake agreement between McCormack and Palmer that provided the foundation for IMG’s birth. Within eighteen months, IMG had also added Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus to the IMG client list. Between them, the ‘big three’ won eight Open Championships. McCormack also devised and created The Official World Golf Ranking, which The R&A sanctioned in 1986.
Todd McCormack, Mark’s son, said,
"Given IMG’s prevalence in the world of professional golf, people know little about my father’s devotion to the amateur game. His early trips to Britainto play in the Amateur Championship began so many treasured life long friendships.
"Knowing The R&A developed a ranking for the amateur game and an award that honours his life in this fashion would have meant so much to him."
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Note to editors:
The Mark H McCormack Medal
The medal measures 1.5 inches in diameter and is made from sterling silver. It features the crest of The Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews and the text:
THE MARK H McCORMACK MEDAL WORLD AMATEUR GOLF RANKING
Photographs of the medal are available free of charge from Malcolm Booth (details below), and also from Getty Images.
Mark H McCormack
Mark Hume McCormack was born in Chicago, Illinois on 6 November 1930. He was a graduate of The College of William and Mary in Virginia, where he was a member of their golf team, and also of Yale Law School.
Over the following four decades, he grew the IMG business to become the largest sports management agency in the world. Golf magazine called him "the most powerful man in golf" whilst Sports illustrated described him as "the most powerful man in sports". Mark was elected a member of The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews in 1981.
Until his death on 16 May 2003, he worked tirelessly in the promotion of golf worldwide.
World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR)
The WAGR is produced by R&A Championships Limited as the global eligibility standard for entry into The Amateur Championship and as a service to amateur golf worldwide. The ranking is a weekly table of playing performance for the world’s top 1200 amateur players in 300 ranking events. The R&A’s World Amateur Golf Ranking was launched in January 2007 after a two-year trial. The R&A
The R&A is golf’s world rules and development body and organiser of The Open Championship. It operates with the consent of more than 130 national and international, amateur and professional organisations, from over 120 countries and on behalf of an estimated 30 million golfers in Europe, Africa, Asia Pacific and The Americas (outside the USA and Mexico). The United States Golf Association (USGA) is the game’s governing body in the United States and Mexico.
Contact:
Malcolm Booth, Communications Manager
The R&A
Tel: +44 1334 460000
malcolmbooth@randa.org