HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. (August 18, 2009) – Linda Hartough, world-renowned golf-landscape artist, this year celebrates 20 years since she first was commissioned by the U.S. Golf Association to create official paintings and prints of the United States Open. She is the only artist ever commissioned by the USGA and the R&A to do the annual, official paintings and prints for the U.S. Open and the British Open Championships.

“It is a privilege and a pleasure to have been selected to do the official paintings and prints at the U.S. Open each year,” says Hartough, whose work has achieved international acclaim. “I look forward to the opportunity to capture the beauty of many more future U.S. Open sites.”

Hartough painted the first of her U.S. Open series in 1990, when Hale Irwin won at Medinah Country Club in Medinah, Ill. This year’s official rendering was of the 17th hole at Bethpage State Park’s Black Course in Farmingdale, N.Y., site of Lucas Glover’s triumph. The just-completed 2010 U.S. Open Championship painting, representing Number 21 in Hartough’s series, features the famed ocean-side ninth hole at Pebble Beach Golf Links. Prints of this painting will be released for sale beginning Aug. 20.

A confirmed artist since childhood, early in her career Hartough painted landscapes, portraits and horses. In 1984, Augusta National Golf Club commissioned her to paint its famous 13th hole, an event which propelled Hartough toward specialization as a golf-landscape painter. Since then, her work has achieved a distinguished status, displayed in the permanent collections of such legendary clubs as Augusta National, Laurel Valley, Pinehurst and Pine Valley, as well as in the personal collections of such golf notables as Jack Nicklaus, Raymond Floyd and Robert Trent Jones, Sr. Known for extraordinary attention to detail in her recreation of some of golf’s most beautiful holes, Hartough imbues her paintings with admiration for the scenery’s natural beauty and respect for the game’s history and tradition, elements which seem to emerge from the canvas.

Hartough is a Founding Trustee of the Academy of Golf Art, a professional society of golf artists established in 2004 to create an awareness and appreciation of golf art as a valuable segment of fine art.

For more information, visit www.hartough.com.

Contact:
Sally J. Sportsman
(t) 407-248-1144
(e) sjsport@earthlink.net