Anna Rawson: Golf Innovator

For the third year, Golf Magazine has selected men and women who are influencing the game of golf. It is a very impressive list of true golf heroes and cover the range from inventors of new technology to philanthropists who fund programs to get at-risk children off the streets and on the golf course, to former golf pros that provide a sanctuary for wounded military veterans.  

In 2007, the first year Golf Magazine introduced Innovators, there were 12 selected and the only woman in the group was Debbie Crew, a research associate at Arizona State University. She and a colleague are working on a pill to help cure The Yips:  the dreaded twitch that people experience while putting. 

 In 2008, there were 10 Innovators selected and the women chosen were the PGA Tour Wives Association.  While their husbands are playing golf, they volunteer in the community that make the Tour events possible. They aren’t going for the glamorous  jobs either:  soup kitchens, food drives, working at shelters for abused women, helping Katrina victims find lost items like marriage and birth certificates in their ravaged homes.

 The 2009 Innovators list is out. Eight have been selected and the woman in the group is Anna Rawson.  Anna is an absolutely beautiful woman, model, golf clothing designer, writer and a member of the LPGA.  She has been selected as an Innovator because she recognizes that the LPGA is struggling to survive and this has dominoed into the downsizing of events and the loss of sponsors.  She has gotten creative with several innovative ideas on how to get fans excited about the LPGA.  She feels that when the LPGA comes to town, we need to “make some noise”!  She wants to help put women’s golf on the map and “….leave the game better than when I found it.”  Anna is right too.  The future of the LPGA depends on creative thinking, out of the box ideas, and women like Anna who want to make the investment in saving professional women’s golf.  Anna truly is an Innovator and the award is well deserved! Bravo!