Craig Dolch on receiving Tim Rosaforte award: 'It just means the world to me' | D'Angelo
PALM BEACH GARDENS — For the last three years, Craig Dolch has eloquently told the stories about his friends and peers who have received the Tim Rosaforte Distinguished Writers’ Award. That list includes Rosaforte himself, the highly-respected journalist who died in 2022 of Alzheimer's Disease.
Dolch has been passionate and personal in his writings about those honored in the name of a man Craig has described as his best friend.
This year, I am tasked with telling that story, about a friend for 40 years who is the fourth recipient of Tim Rosaforte Distinguished Writers’ Award.
Craig Dolch will be on the other side Tuesday at the Cognizant Classic in the Palm Beaches, receiving — not writing — about an honor few have been, and ever will be, more deserving to receive.
Dolch, 65, will be handed the award by its founder, Ken Kennerly, in the Tim Rosaforte Media Room at PGA National. He is the fourth recipient following Rosaforte, Larry Dorman and Randy Mell.
"It's hard to put into words, but it just means the world to me to know that my name is going to be on that plaque," Dolch said. "I'm sure Larry and Randy would say the same thing, probably the highlight of our careers … knowing what it means and what he meant to us."
When Rosafort died in 2022 at the age of 66, Craig wrote an emotional tribute about his friend that appeared in The Palm Beach Post.
His column started like this:
Professional golf lost a great friend Tuesday when Tim Rosaforte died of Alzheimer’s Disease.
So did I.
Dolch met Rosaforte in early 1981 when he was moving into an apartment in Tampa and Rosaforte was moving out, having just accepted a job in South Florida. A little more than a year later, Dolch joined the Evening Times, the sister paper of the Palm Beach Post. They reunited "fittingly" behind the 18th green of the Senior PGA Championship at PGA National awaiting winner Dan January.
"He showed me the way, the proper way to do the business at a very, very high level," Dolch said about the man he and his peers called "Arnold," because like Arnold Palmer, Tim demanded his peers always look and act like a professional.
One piece of advice: "It's okay to (be critical) but you need to be in their face the next day. Be accountable," Dolch said. "He'd always have the right advice. I just really miss that phone call being able to talk to him."
Kennerly was the executive director of the then Honda Classic when the award was created and the media room was renamed in Rosaforte's honor.
"Craig is one of the most respected and admired golf journalists, having covered just about every story in the game, and for him to receive this great award, which was created and named after his close friend 'Rosie,' is a remarkable and so well-deserved achievement," Kennerly said.
In 2008, after 26 years at Palm Beach Newspapers, Craig took a buyout. Since then, he has written for the New York Times, London Times, Sports Illustrated, Golf Digest, Golf World and Golfweek - as well as for The Post as a correspondent. He has written more than 5,000 stories on golf, many on the local level.
Craig has written books on Lost Tree’s 50th Anniversary and Bill Coore-Ben Crenshaw’s design at McArthur Golf Club in Hobe Sound. Currently, he is writing a historical book on Palm Beach Yacht Club. He co-hosted The Golf Exchange radio show for nine years. He has appeared on more than 200 Golf Channel shows, mostly with Rosaforte.
And for the last 10 years he has helped run the media room of the PGA Tour Champions event in Palm Beach County.
A relationship that transcends golf
But his relationship with Rosaforte transcends golf and their time together traveling the country, and the world, to cover events. It is so much more than just about Craig and Tim going to concerts together, playing in competitive pickup basketball games and rounds of golf, and driving from Palm Beach County to Orlando more than 100 times to tape shows for Golf Channel.
This is about two friends who shared a deep, personal experience that bonded two decorated journalists forever.
Craig was covering the 2005 U.S. Open in Pinehurst when he received a call from his 14-year-old son, Eric. It was mid-June and Eric wanted to wish his dad a "Happy Father's Day." They talked for about five minutes.
That would be the last conversation Craig had with his only son.
A day later, Craig received a call. He knew Eric was running a low-grade fever. But then he was told Eric was admitted to the hospital.
Later that day, another phone call. That's when Craig was told doctors believed Eric had encephalitis. A planned family cruise had been canceled and Craig already had hopped in his car and was headed home. He arrived Tuesday. Eric was in a coma and experiencing seizures.
"I knew pretty early on this was a major deal and life changing for our son," Craig said.
That coma lasted nearly four months. In the next 15 months, Eric was in several hospitals in Miami along with the Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital in Boston. Eric underwent two brain surgeries that lasted at least 10 hours each. Craig said Eric came close to dying about six times the first six weeks.
Life has drastically changed for Craig, Eric's mom Ava Van de Water, and their daughter, Alex. All have made Eric the focus of their lives. Craig is the executive director of the Eric Dolch Children’s Encephalitis Foundation, which has raised more than $100,000 for South Florida charities.
“The strength and resilience that Eric shows on a daily basis is remarkable," his dad said. "Anyone who has been through an injury knows how difficult the rehab can be. Eric has basically been doing rehab for the last 17 years. How can I ever complain about something when I see what he goes through? He’s an inspiration for myself, our family and so many other people."
Eric is in a group home in Loxahatchee, where he has lived for 12 years. Making that decision was difficult for Craig and his family but they realized it was what was best for Eric.
"Instead of just being his caregivers, we could go back to being parents," Craig said. But that did not make it any easier: "It was tough for a long time to walk out of that house," Craig added.
Craig tries to see Eric every day. He's with him at times during physical therapy, for doctors appointments, for lunch or dinner. If he cannot make it, Craig will FaceTime with Eric and a nurse.
Eric remains stable. He is wheelchair-bound and communicates non-verbally. Staff at the group home spend their time trying to maintain what he has, getting him out of the house, making sure he is as active as possible.
Father of the Year
In 2014, Craig was named Golfweek's Father of the Year, one of the many awards for this decorated journalist who was inducted into the Palm Beach County Sports Hall of Fame in 2016, received the Steven C. Owen Award from the Indian River Golf Foundation in 2020 and two years later became the first journalist since Rosaforte to be inducted into the South Florida PGA Hall of Fame. Rosaforte was inducted in 2011.
Of course, topping Craig's list has to be his three consecutive Palm Beach Jai Alai Celebrity Tournament titles. Craig and I were partners for this event held annually in the 1980s at the Palm Beach fronton. But saying Craig and I won these titles is like saying Jack Nicklaus and Gary Nicklaus combined for 18 majors.
My job was to stay out of the way and try not to get hit in the face by a rock-hard pelota while Craig took on the two-person teams essentially alone.
The week of the 2006 Honda Classic, a fundraiser was held at Old Palm Golf Club. The guest list was a Who's Who of golf, including Jack and Barbara Nicklaus, Nick Price, Jesper Parnevik, Olin Browne, JoAnne Carner. Dana and Brett Quigley and Tom Fazio.
The person who organized the event and secured that impressive list of guests: Tim Rosaforte.
"All I had to do was show up with my family and be humbled by the amount of financial and spiritual support I received that night," Craig said. "But that was Rosie – he did that for me and many others."
Now, Craig and Rosie will be linked forever ... again.
The Eric Dolch Children's Encephalitis Foundation is dedicated to raising money and awareness for the proper care and treatment for children and young adults with encephalitis while helping to find a cure for encephalitis and other types of epilepsy. To donate visit ericdolchfoundation.org/Donation.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Craig Dolch to receive Tim Rosaforte Writers’ Award at Cognizant Classic
