Mercedes-Benz Presents David Fay with William D. Richardson Award At Golf Writers Dinner

AUGUSTA, GA--April 11, 2013: The Golf Writers Association of America (GWAA) Annual Dinner and Awards Ceremony had many winners last night including David Fay, who was presented with the William D. Richardson awarded by Mercedes-Benz.

With a long-standing history in golf that spans 20 years and an ongoing commitment to support the game's future growth, Mercedes-Benz served as overall presenting sponsor of this year's GWAA awards dinner, which takes place each year prior to the kick-off of the Masters at Augusta National.
The William D. Richardson Award recognizes an individual who has consistently made an outstanding contribution to the sport.  Richardson, of The New York Times, was instrumental in the founding of the GWAA in 1946.  The 2013 William D. Richardson Award honors David Fay, who served as the former executive director of the United States Golf Association (USGA).

Fay entered the golf world as a caddie, which eventually led him to guiding the U.S. Golf Association for 21 years.  He was the driving force behind bringing the U.S. Open to public courses.  A lasting legacy is his successful campaign to bring the U.S. Open to Bethpage State Park on Long Island in 2002. Bethpage's Black Course became the first public facility ever to host the national championship, and since then the USGA has strongly affirmed its commitment to bringing the U.S. Open to venues that are accessible to the public. From 1999 through 2019, the U.S. Open will have been played at Pinehurst No. 2 (1999, 2005 and 2014), Pebble Beach (2000, 2010 and 2019), Bethpage Black (2002 and 2009), Torrey Pines (2008), Chambers Bay (2015) and Erin Hills (2017), making a total of 11 U.S. Opens in 21 years on publicly accessible courses.

"For the past twenty-years Mercedes-Benz has had a significant track record with the sport of Golf and we are very pleased to support the Golf Writers Association of America in their recognition of the best in the industry," said Bernhard Glaser, VP Marketing Mercedes-Benz USA.  "We congratulate David Fay on his accomplishments and all the award recipients for their leadership and achievements."

Award recipients include Rory Mcilroy, Male Player of the Year, Stacy Lewis, Female Player of the Year, Roger Chapman, Senior Player of the Year, K.J. Choi, Charlie Bartlett Award, David Meador, Ben Hogan Award, Laura Davies, ASAPsports /Jim Murray Award, Renton Laidlaw, Masters Major Achievement Award, John Hopkins, PGA Lifetime Achievement Award in Journalism.

Many golf professional rely on their best driver to gain yardage on the course and guests of the GWAA Annual Dinner and Award Ceremony had an exclusive look at one of Mercedes-Benz best "drivers" -- the new 2014 E-Class sedan, which is slated to launch this June in the US.  The E-Class has always represented the best in luxury and innovative technology and now the bar is raised again with the 2014 E-Class by delivering an impressive set of "Intelligent Drive" technologies including DISTRONIC PLUS with Steering Assist. This enhanced radar-guided cruise control now has the ability to maintain a safe distance from other vehicles not just to the front, but to the left, right and rear as well, while Steering Assist helps center the vehicle in its lane by monitoring road markings or even using the vehicle ahead as reference.