J. MICHAEL VERON NAMED AS LOUISIANA GOLF ASSOCIATION DISTINGUISHED SERVICE AWARD RECIPIENT FOR 2008

May 12, 2008  --  Lafayette, LA  --   J. Michael Veron of Lake Charles has been named recipient of the Louisiana Golf Association’s Distinguished Service Award for 2008. The award was initiated in 1984 by the LGA to honor individuals who have contributed to the betterment of the game in Louisiana.

Veron, a well-known and respected trial attorney, received his J.D. from Tulane Law School in 1974, and after a judicial clerkship, his LL.M (Master of Laws) in 1976 from Harvard Law School. He then returned to his hometown of Lake Charles, where he has practiced law ever since.

In addition to his legal activities, Mike has held a lifelong passion for golf, serving as a member of the Louisiana Golf Association’s Board of Directors for a number of years, including a stint as the organization’s President in 1990. He has also served the game as a member of the USGA Green Section and Regional Affairs Committees. He has addressed numerous USGA conferences on various golf-related topics, particularly about legal issues that pertain to golf. As a member of the USGA Regional Affairs Committee, he is in charge of a U.S. Amateur sectional qualifier on an annual basis and has also worked at several U.S. Open Championships in a number of different capacities.

In 1998 he began a literary career, completing three critically acclaimed golf novels, The Greatest Player Who Never Lived (2000), The Greatest Course That Never Was (2001), and The Caddie (2004). In 2007 he published Shell Game, a nonfiction book about his decade-long battle with Shell Oil over pollution of land belonging to his mother’s family.

Mike has been a long-time member of Lake Charles Country Club, capturing two club championships there, most recently this past year at the age of 57. He has also won the Senior Club Championship there twice. 

Mike and his wife Melinda live adjacent to the 11^th green at Lake Charles Country Club and have five children and five grandchildren.

It is particularly fitting that Mr. Veron will be honored with this award as the LGA conducts its 89^th annual Amateur Championship at Gray Plantation in Lake Charles, just down the road from where he learned the game years ago. The presentation will take place at the Pre-Championship Banquet at Gray Plantation on the eve of the Louisiana Golf Association Amateur Championship, Wednesday night, June 4, 2008.

List of previous recipients: