John W. Stewart was a sports writer for the Baltimore Sun. While at the Sun and after his retirement, John covered amateur golf in the Mid-Atlantic region.  He became a fixture at events and USGA qualifiers run by the Middle Atlantic GA, the Maryland State GA, the Washington Metropolitan GA, and the Middle Atlantic Section of the PGA.  Stationed at the scorers table, John would assist with the collection and checking of score cards and conduct player interviews and gather for the thousands of articles he would produce.  In the early years those articles would show up in the morning edition of the Baltimore Sun.  In his later years they were posted to the websites of the various associations he covered.  After each day of play John would return home, gather his notes (kept accurately in a spiral bound notebook), craft an article about the days event, and send it in to the association for posting on their website late that night or first thing in the AM.  He covered hundreds of events and never missed an important part of the days action.

 

John's contributions to amateur golf earned him a place in the Middle Atlantic GA Hall of Fame in 2011 - MAGA Hall of Fame.  The MAPGA awarded John the Earle Helen Sports Media Award in 1991 and 1995.  John was a member of the Golf Writers Association of America and won several of their annual Golf Writer Contests.  His work earned him wide recognition. In 1991 and 1995, he won the PGA’s Golf Writer of the Year Award, and in 2009, received the Professional Golf Association’s Keeper of the Game Award, and had been honored by the Golf Writers Association of America.

 

John passed away on Thursday, August 4, at the age of 91.  His obituary is HERE

 

From the MAGA website

 

John W. Stewart, a major figure in amateur golf across the Mid-Atlantic region passed away this past Thursday, August 4.  Much could be said and volumes written about John and what he meant to amateur golf and the trade of golf writing.  The words of Randy Reed best sum that up in the message below that he sent out the Past Presidents of the Maryland State Golf Association.  No one, other than perhaps Nan Kaestner, spent more time with John at the scoring table than Randy Reed. John shared countless golf stories with Randy and Nan and anyone else willing to listen.  Most of us did.

 

From Randy Reed

 

John travelled tirelessly from well north of Baltimore to often distant MAGA, MSGA, WMGA and other association sites well more than a thousand times.

He might have been involved with the process of receiving score cards as many times as anyone in the history of the game.

 

He got home late countless hundreds of times and worked until even later to produce articles on the golf competition of the day. He was the Encyclopedia of Maryland Golf.

 

Furthermore, he was THE golf writer in Maryland  – the last one standing – for decades.

 

John had a wry and piercing sense of humor that was unsurpassed. There were no golf idols too big for John to put in their place.

 

Not only did he interview Marty West, Kirk Lombardi, Wayne DeFrancesco, Pat Tallent, Denny McCarthy, Jane Mason, Joan Winchester, Sarah LeBrun [Ingram], Jane Fitzgerald and Andrea Krause but also Jack Nicklaus and Kathy Whitworth. Indeed, at a final round press gathering after the 1986 Masters, the Golden Bear pointed to John Stewart and said “John, you know what I am talking about” when asked by a member of the press about an article published in an Atlanta newspaper before the Masters that said he was washed up.   The assembled group was suitably impressed and reminded once again of John’s standing in the game.

 

Everyone in the Golf Writers Association of America during the 70s, 80s and 90s knew John Stewart. The legendary Rhonda Glenn, a close friend of John, had high praise for his coverage of women’s golf for decades.

 

It is a statement of the obvious that John Stewart’s dedication to the coverage of golf in Maryland will never be equaled.

 

Godspeed John Stewart.