In our final look at winners from the 2013 PGA of BC Awards, we honour longtime Vancouver Sun sports reporter Brad Ziemer.

Ziemer takes the time to cover many PGA of BC events – in between his regular gig covering the Vancouver Canucks – and if there’s anything happening in the world of British Columbia golf, you can rest assured that Ziemer is on top of it.

Ziemer also won a Distinguished Service Award from Golf Canada earlier in 2013 and on that occasion, his Vancouver Sun colleague Iain MacIntyre wrote an amusing and heartwarming column on Ziemer (For those in the media industry, writing about how accomplished another colleague is, especially when they’re still alive, is one of the toughest things you’ll ever have to do.)

Here are some snippets from MacIntyre’s column about how hard Ziemer works to cover the sport of golf:

“Typically, we reserve the honour of devoting a column to a newspaper colleague only posthumously, as this streamlines the interview process and makes it difficult for the subject to complain later they were misquoted,” writes MacIntyre. “But Brad Ziemer's golf swing died a grotesque death a long time ago, so we won't quibble about the fact the man is very much alive and healthy and planning to remain so for as long as he can lash golf balls low and left.

“Brad, of course, is my partner on the Vancouver Canucks' beat for The Vancouver Sun. But when he's not writing two or three hockey stories a day, he will find unpaid time during the fall, winter and spring to write about his true passion: golf. In summer, Brad actually is paid to do this.”

MacIntyre went and found opinions from influential people in the golf industry who high revere Ziemer’s work.

"Without somebody dedicated to helping tell the story, golf gets lost," Golf Canada director of communications Dan Pino said when asked of Brad's worthiness for an award. "It gets lost against hockey and other sports. Our best golf writers are important to the grassroots growth of the game.”

"Brad covers all aspects of the game, not just the scores," B.C. Golf executive director Kris Jonasson said. "It's almost more investigative in nature than just reporting. Quite honestly, I'm not really upset when a reporter writes something critical about what we're doing because if they only wrote positive stories, we'd miss some of our problems. He has a deep understanding of what the sport is and what it means to different people at different levels."

MacIntyre himself gave credit to the work he sees Ziemer do on a day-to-day basis since he took over the golf beat at the Vancouver Sun in 1995.

“He regularly pesters golfers, golf administrators, course owners, club professionals, agents and architects. If anything is happening in golf in B.C. or if anyone from this province is doing something noteworthy anywhere in golf, Brad seems to know about it. And he'll make time to write about it and get it in the newspaper, no matter what else he is doing, because he cares passionately about golf and the people in it.”

Ziemer could not attend the PGA of BC Awards Reception because he was in Buffalo, covering the Canucks, but he did send a note to be read at the reception in which he jokingly threatened any and all of the PGA of BC professionals who’ve offered to teach him that he might soon take them up on that offer.

Congratulations to Brad Ziemer, the PGA of BC 2013 Patron of the Year.