Palm City Resident Ken Duke Wins Prestigious Golf Writers Association Award

Posted by zz Dan Hauser

Updated on January 7th, 2014

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Published in Events & Entertainment

Ken Duke has had a life time of adversity to overcome to get to where he is today. Diagnosed with scoliosis at a young age, Duke had a 16-inch metal rod surgically attached to his spine at the age of 15. Despeite the disability, and the metal rod, Duke still played high school golf in his native Arkansas and even managed to turn pro in 1994. After bouncing around on mini tours around the world, he finally made it to the PGA tour in 2004 at the age of 35.

10 years later, the Palm City resident is now a PGA Tour winner after winning the Travelers Championship in 2013, his first PGA Tour win in his long career. In addition to the stability and Masters invite that the win came with, the Golf Writers Association of America also deemed Duke worthy of the Ben Hogan Award. The Hogan Award is awarded to a golfer who remains active in the professional ranks despite a physical handicap or serious illness.

Former Ben Hogan award winners include Tom Watson, Paul Azinger, and Lee Trevino. Duke will be presented with the Award at Augusta National on April 9, the night before he will tee it up in his first ever Masters.