CORAL SPRINGS, Fla. – Sun Devil women's golf alum Mary Bea Porter-King has received the Women's Golf Coaches Association's (WGCA) most prestigious honor, named the 2018 Gladys Palmer Meritorious Service Award recipient.
Porter-King is the president and co-founder of the Hawaii State Junior Golf Association (HSJGA) and is one of the country's most respected rules officials, officiating over 75 United States National Championships (14 U.S. Opens, 17 U.S. Women's Opens, 15 U.S. Amateurs, 5 Masters Tournaments, 5 PGA Championships, 1 British Open).
"On behalf of Arizona State University, we would like to congratulate Mary Bea Porter-King on receiving the Gladys Palmer Meritorious Service Award," said current Sun Devil women's golf head coach Missy Farr-Kaye. "Mary Bea is most deserving of this honor for her outstanding, lifelong contributions to the game of golf. As a member of the Sun Devil Athletics Hall of Fame, we are very proud of Mary Bea and her accomplishments."
She served previously on the USGA Executive Committee, which oversees the entire USGA, before becoming the Independent Director on the Board of the PGA of America. She now serves on the USGA Junior Amateur Committee & Regional Association Committee and the PGA Youth Development Committee.
In 2001, Porter-King was awarded the LPGA Teaching Division's Budget Service Award, an honor that recognizes an LPGA member's services to youth golf and donates $5,000 to youth charity. In 2011, she was named the PGA of America First Lady of Golf.
She also had the Mary Bea Porter Humanitarian Award named after her by the Metropolitan Golf Writers Association, which honors humanitarian and heroic human life-enhancing actions. In 1988 while playing an LPGA event, she saved a young boy's life after scaling a fence and administering CPR when she noticed him floating unconscious in a pool near the course.
A 1973 graduate of Arizona State, she was inducted into the Sun Devil Athletics Hall of Fame in 2001 as a four-sport athlete during her time at ASU (golf, basketball, volleyball, softball). She competed in the pre-Title IX era and was the second baseman for the 1971 Women's College World Series Championship team, earned All-American honors in golf in 1972, and was a member of the 1970 and 1971 NAIA Women's Golf Championship teams.
Porter-King will be recognized on Sunday, Dec. 10 at the WGCA Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony in Las Vegas.
Porter-King is the president and co-founder of the Hawaii State Junior Golf Association (HSJGA) and is one of the country's most respected rules officials, officiating over 75 United States National Championships (14 U.S. Opens, 17 U.S. Women's Opens, 15 U.S. Amateurs, 5 Masters Tournaments, 5 PGA Championships, 1 British Open).
"On behalf of Arizona State University, we would like to congratulate Mary Bea Porter-King on receiving the Gladys Palmer Meritorious Service Award," said current Sun Devil women's golf head coach Missy Farr-Kaye. "Mary Bea is most deserving of this honor for her outstanding, lifelong contributions to the game of golf. As a member of the Sun Devil Athletics Hall of Fame, we are very proud of Mary Bea and her accomplishments."
She served previously on the USGA Executive Committee, which oversees the entire USGA, before becoming the Independent Director on the Board of the PGA of America. She now serves on the USGA Junior Amateur Committee & Regional Association Committee and the PGA Youth Development Committee.
In 2001, Porter-King was awarded the LPGA Teaching Division's Budget Service Award, an honor that recognizes an LPGA member's services to youth golf and donates $5,000 to youth charity. In 2011, she was named the PGA of America First Lady of Golf.
She also had the Mary Bea Porter Humanitarian Award named after her by the Metropolitan Golf Writers Association, which honors humanitarian and heroic human life-enhancing actions. In 1988 while playing an LPGA event, she saved a young boy's life after scaling a fence and administering CPR when she noticed him floating unconscious in a pool near the course.
A 1973 graduate of Arizona State, she was inducted into the Sun Devil Athletics Hall of Fame in 2001 as a four-sport athlete during her time at ASU (golf, basketball, volleyball, softball). She competed in the pre-Title IX era and was the second baseman for the 1971 Women's College World Series Championship team, earned All-American honors in golf in 1972, and was a member of the 1970 and 1971 NAIA Women's Golf Championship teams.
Porter-King will be recognized on Sunday, Dec. 10 at the WGCA Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony in Las Vegas.