PGA Professional Renee Powell of East Canton, Ohio, the 2003 PGA First Lady of Golf, has become the first female golfer and ninth golf professional in history to be conferred with an honorary doctor of laws (LLD) degree from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.

Prior to Powell’s being conferred with her degree, a choir sang "Straight Down the Middle," a song popularized by the late Bing Crosby, whose love of golf was legendary. Powell was introduced by professor Alan Cairns, who paid homage to Powell’s life work of building diversity in the game and her personal struggle early in her playing career to achieve human rights.

"Renee has received many honors from the world of golf, too many to list here, but amongst the most notable is her First Lady of Golf award by The Professional Golfers Association of America in 2003," said Cairns. "Situated as it is, it is natural for the University of St. Andrews to confer honors on eminent golfers from time to time. However, in Renee Powell we honor someone whose achievements transcend the world of golf and move into much broader issues of human rights, racial equality and the treatment of disadvantaged members of society."

Joining in the celebration was Renee’s father, William Powell, 91, a PGA Life Member and who remains the only African-American to own, operate and build a golf course in the United States.

At Clearview Golf Club Powell guides a course her father, a U.S. Army veteran, built in 1946. Powell’s youngest brother, Larry, is course superintendent and a long-time member of the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America.

The ceremony is the first of two visits that Powell will make this summer to St. Andrews. She will return in August as part of the "New Links St. Andrews" initiative connecting youth to St. Andrews and with scholarships to the university. Powell will be accompanied by four youngsters from her LPGA girls program at Clearview Golf Club.