Alison Murdoch and Jack McDonald take home the hardware at 42nd Sport BC Awards

Victoria native, Alison Murdoch, Canada’s top amateur senior woman on the world stage, claimed the Sport BC master athlete of the year at the 42nd annual banquet last night at the Hyatt Regency in Vancouver.

Murdoch, was up against septuagenarian sprinter Norm Lesage 77, of Burnaby, who won four races in the over-75 division at the Huntsman world senior games in Utah and swimmer Bonnie Pronk, of Quadra Island who won six races at the Huntsman games.

This award tops of an impressive year for Murdoch who took home the Pacific Northwest Golf Association senior player of the year and three major titles in three countries. Murdoch kicked off her streak claiming the 2007 Royale National Women’s Senior Championship at Elk Ridge Resort in Waskesiu, Sask. Followed by the Irish Senior Ladies Amateur Championship in Ennis, Ireland and the Senior Ladies’ British Amateur Championship at Copt Heath in England. 

Winning her fourth Canadian Senior Women’s title in six years, Murdoch took home the prestigious Ada Mackenzie Trophy and joined Canadian Golf Hall of Famers, Gayle Borthwick of Mississauga, Ont. and Marlene Stewart Streit of Unionville, Ont. as the only 4-time winners of Canada’s senior amateur title.  Murdoch was also a member of the 2007 British Columbia team that won the province’s 12th Women’s Senior Inter-provincial team title and fifth in the past six years.

Jack McDonald of Kamloops, B.C. picked up the award for official of the year. McDonald, is the lone Canadian among only seven members to sit on the Joint Rules Committee (JRC) of the Royal and Ancient (R&A) in St. Andrews, Scotland and the United States Golf Association (USGA). The committee is responsible for writing, interpreting and maintaining the Rules of Golf for the world in order to guard the tradition and integrity of the game.Every four years, after continuous, meticulous review, the two organizations jointly revise, author and publish The Rules

As a member of the JRC, Jack is globally recognized as one of the leading authorities on the Rules of Golf and is invited to officiate at many of the world’s most prestigious competitions. Since becoming the Royal Canadian Golf Association’s (RCGA) Rules Chair in 2005, Jack has officiated at the Masters, the US Open, the British Open, the Canadian Open, and most recently at the President’s Cup - perhaps the biggest golfing event to ever take place in Canada. Although, volunteering as a Rules Official often involves six or seven 12 – 14 hour days at each event, he keeps this schedule while continuing to work full-time as a professional engineer and attending the many amateur competitions that he officiates at each year.

Jack is tireless in his efforts to improve the Rules and the game of golf in Canada. In addition to his role as an RCGA governor and the chief Rules official in Canada, Jack is also a member of the Executive Committee of the RCGA and sits on the Championship Committee responsible for conducting over 30 national championships and developmental competitions annually. As the RCGA Rules Chair, Jack has been instrumental in the development of a national Rules official education program and teaches Rules seminars across the country every spring. In 2006, the RCGA Rules Committee under his leadership introduced the world’s first online rules certification program. The program has since gone on to be globally recognized for its ingenuity and is now being used by other foreign golf associations to train rules officials.

Throughout his tenure as Rules Chair, Jack has always emphasized the need to ‘get it right’. Golf is unique: considering that each venue is different and there is no standard competition field, officials always have the opportunity to take the time to assess a situation and ‘get it right’. To this end, Jack is always happy to take phone calls or e-mails to assist an official during a competition.

As Jack’s tenure as an RCGA governor nears 10 years of service, his expertise has not gone unnoticed. Recently, Jack was nominated as second vice-president of the RCGA and will likely ascend to the president’s office in 2010.