Complete Story
07/19/2018
Former Cleveland Plain Dealer golf writer George Sweda will be honored with PGA Journalism Award
The World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational announced today that, in celebration of the 65-year anniversary of professional golf at Firestone Country Club, former Cleveland Plain Dealer golf writer George Sweda will be honored with the Journalism Award for his more than 30-year commitment to professional golf’s tradition at Firestone Country Club.
Sweda will be formally recognized on Wednesday, August 1 during the Ambassador of Golf Ceremony at Firestone Country Club on the eve of the 2018 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational.
“When Don Padgett III told me about the award, I thought he was asking me for nominees. Then he said, ‘No, George, you are getting the first one,’” Sweda said. “I was surprised and overwhelmed. It got very emotional for me when I told my wife what had happened. Because Firestone in basically in my backyard, I've probably written more words about it than any other place, even Augusta National and Muirfield Village, thanks to PGA Tour events, three or four Northern Ohio PGA events on the property every year and some amateur events.”
A Cleveland native, Sweda was a journalism major at Ohio State University where he was sports editor, managing editor and eventually editor of the student newspaper, The Ohio State Lantern. He joined the Cleveland Plain Dealer in 1972, where he was a summer intern while still in college. He first covered golf at Firestone Country Club during the 1975 PGA Championship, when Jack Nicklaus made his famous par on the signature 16th hole despite a penalty stroke.
A year later, he took over The Plain Dealer golf beat full time and kept it for over 30 years, covering every event at Firestone until he retired in 2008.
