George Peper

George Peper is one of America's most respected golf journalists. For 25 years he was Editor-in-Chief of GOLF Magazine, with a total readership of 7 million. He is currently Editor of LINKS Magazine where his column appears in each issue.

Peper is the author or editor of 20 books on golf, two of them New York Times best sellers. He has written scripts for two dozen videos and television shows. His script for The Story of Golf, a two-hour documentary for Public Broadcasting, won him an Emmy nomination.

Peper's commitment to golf and golf course architecture was recognized in 2008 when he was presented the Donald Ross Award, the highest honor bestowed by the American Society of Golf Course Architects. Previous recipients include Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Byron Nelson, and Robert Trent Jones. In 2009 the Metropolitan Golf Writers presented him the Lincoln Werden Award for golf journalism. In 2016 he received the Lifetime Achievement Award in Journalism from the PGA of America.

Among his contributions to the game are "Pace Ratings" which establish playing times for golf courses and "The Need System" which was adopted by the USGA as the recommended method for allocating handicap strokes across 18 holes. Peper is also the originator of GOLF Magazine's biennial list of the Top 100 Courses in the World.

For 30 years Peper owned a home on the 18th hole of the Old Course in St Andrews. He and his wife lived there full time for a while and their experiences became the source of one of his most popular books, Two Years in St Andrews. He now lives in Portsmouth, Rhode Island and Charleston, South Carolina.