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Mike Waldron, former Executive Director of the Georgia State Golf Association (GSGA), was selected as the 2015 International Association of Golf Administrators (IAGA) Distinguished Service Award recipient. Mike Waldron began his golf administrative career with the Ladies Professional Golf Association in 1979 and worked for Executive Sports, managing event logistics for the PGA Tour, LPGA, and other events throughout the 1980s. He then began what would become an 18-year term as the Executive Director of the GSGA. He currently serves as a Manager of Rules and Competitions for the LPGA. Mike is also a past President of the IAGA, serving in that capacity in 2003. Waldron’s other accomplishments include a stint working at the USGA as a Regional Associations Manager and sitting on USGA committees for Regional Associations, the Joe Dey Award, Rules of Golf, and Handicap Procedure. His long career in golf was also spent lending time to rules work. He worked as a rules official at more than 40 USGA National Championships, including 11 U.S. Opens. He also worked at more than 20 other Men’s and Women’s Major Professional Golf Championships, including Four Masters Tournaments. Mike is a past president of the Georgia Golf Environmental Foundation and a recipient of the Distinguished Service Award from the Georgia Golf Course Superintendents Association and the Georgia Section of the PGA of America.

Over the course of a 30-year career with the Royal Canadian Golf Association, Stephen Douglas Ross built a legacy as one of Canadian golf’s most prominent administrators. Born on June 22, 1954 in Newmarket, Ontario, Ross is a graduate of the University of Western Ontario, Richard Ivey School of Business. He joined the RCGA as Assistant Amateur Tournament Director in 1977 and served as Director of Amateur Tournaments from 1980 to 1988. In 1989, he was named Executive Director, a position he would hold for 18 years before stepping down in 2007.

During his tenure, the association experienced significant growth and introduced a number of programs and initiatives including the CN Future Links junior golf program and the RCGA Foundation University/College Grant Program as well as the creation and expansion of the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame and Museum. He also led the centennial celebrations for both the RCGA and the Canadian Open, conserved the Canadian Women’s Open and Canadian Women’s Tour, started the Canadian Senior Open; negotiated sponsorships for the Canadian Open, Canadian Women’s Open and Canadian Senior Open, re-introduced Golf Canada magazine, orchestrated the purchase of the RCGA Golf Centre in Calgary, organized the Four Nations Cup between Japan, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, and introduced the RCGA Distinguished Service Award.

Renowned as one of the world’s most respected authorities on the Rules of Golf, Ross served on the Joint Rules Committee with the R&A and USGA, and officiated at countless national, international and professional championships, including the British Open, Masters, US Open, World Match Play, The Players Championship, The President’s Cup, Australian Open and the Canadian Open. During his tenure, he created the RCGA’s Rules of Golf certification program, introduced the USGA ‘slope’ handicapping system in Canada, led the bid and organized the 1992 World Amateur Team Championship, and served on the World Golf Hall of Fame election panel.

Westmoreland is a lifelong resident of Westchester County, born in New Rochelle, NY on December 29, 1943. Growing up in Harrison, Gene got his start in golf as a caddie at Harrison Country Club (now Willow Ridge) which may have inspired him to create, on behalf of the MGA, their unique “Caddie Academies” and their handbook “Getting Started as a Caddie”. He pursued his undergraduate studies at Pace University and coached there for 14 years after graduation, rising to become head coach of the school’s varsity baseball and basketball teams, as well as the assistant athletic director. He is a member of the Pace Athletic Hall of Fame.

In 1978, Westmoreland joined the MGA’s field team, which helps conduct the on-site activities at MGA tournaments. He quickly became admired for his knowledge of the game and superb organizational skills, and in 1980, he was hired to take over the tournament department. From the start, he showed an innate capability to manage the many tentacles of the MGA tournament program: the corps of more than 300 volunteer officials and 3,000 active competitors, the screening of host clubs and courses years in advance, and the logistical challenges of an 80-day tournament calendar.

A nationally respected authority on the Rules of Golf, Gene served on the Rules Committee for several USGA championships, including the 2002, 2004 and 2006 U.S. Opens. Gene was equally influential in the area of golf course maintenance, spearheading the creation of the Tri-State Turf Research Foundation. He was given the Metropolitan Golf Course Superintendents Association’s highest honor, the John Reid Lifetime Achievement Award, in 2005.

David B. Fay began his 32-year career with the United States Golf Association (USGA) in 1978, serving first as Tournament Relations Manager and then becoming Director of Program Management in 1981. He became Assistant Executive Director in 1987 and was appointed as the sixth Executive Director of the USGA in 1989. Fay held this position for 21 years until his retirement in 2010. Fay also served as Joint Secretary of the International Golf Federation, the official international body for the sport of golf. In addition, Fay served as Chairman of the World Golf Foundation (a one-year rotating position) in 2008.

Growing up in Hamilton, New York, Horton graduated cum laude from Wake Forest University in 1971. In 1974, Horton took the role of executive director at the TGA where in 35 years he would not only make an impact on golf in Tennessee but on golf in the United States as well. Horton’s accomplishments include overseeing the growth of the Tennessee PGA membership from 150 to 500+ members and apprentices, initiating a Special Olympics golf program that now conducts a national invitational run by the PGA of America, and establishing the Tennessee PGA Junior Golf Academy and 1,500-member TGA Junior Tour. Since 1991, Horton has presided over the Tennessee Golf Foundation as President. Additionally, Horton oversaw the merger of the TGA and Women’s TGA in 2000 and served on the board of directors of the Arnold Palmer Golf Company. He has also served as First Chairman of the PGA Executive Director’s organization, and is a member of the United States Golf Association Regional Affairs Committee and the Vince Gill Pro-Celebrity Advisory Board. Horton was the recipient of the USGA Ike Grainger Award and the 1994 Tennessee Turfgrass Association Professional of the Year. He served as IAGA President in 1991.

Morgan retired in 2006 after 13 years as the SCGA executive director, concluding a 33-year career in the golf industry. A graduate of UC Santa Barbara, Morgan was assistant athletic director and business manager there and assistant commissioner of athletics for the California Interscholastic Federation prior to joining the SCGA. Morgan began as an assistant executive director at the SCGA in 1972. He then spent 10 years as the executive director of the Century Club of San Diego, which presents the PGA Tour event now known as the Buick Invitational, before returning to the SCGA to assume the executive director position in 1993. Morgan extended his impact on the golf community serving as IAGA president in 2006 and has been actively involved in national and regional organizations including the United States Golf Association’s Regional Associations and Joe Dey Award Committees, golf advisory committees for the City and County of Los Angeles, the Southern California Section of the PGA and the Los Angeles Sports & Entertainment Commission.