Dr. Lew Blakey Ph.D., a Notre Dame alum (Class of 1954) -- is generally regarded as one of the world's foremost authorities on the rules of golf. He has served on the USGA Rules of Golf Committee continuously since 2000 and the Joint USGA-R&A Rules of Golf Committee since 2001.
During Lew's time on these Committees, the Rules of Golf were rewritten into a more modern form and many important issues were resolved including the problem of correcting an official’s error and the long-standing conflicts between the definitions of lost ball, substituted ball, and wrong ball.
Blakey has worked as a Rules Official at many national championships including the U.S. Women’s Open and the U.S. Senior Open and, most notable, all four major men’s professional championships, the Masters, U.S. Open, British Open, and PGA Championship.
Lew is also quite a player. In 1991, Blakey won the Northern Virginia Senior Amateur Championship and the Delaware State Senior Amateur Championship. He also won the Washington Metropolitan Golf Association Senior Amateur Championship in 1992 and 1998 and has won six senior club championships at three different clubs.
Lew and his wife Claire were recently seen at Notre Dame's Warren Golf Course -- Lew with his clubs and Claire with her camera. Here's a link below to Lew's website on the rules of golf and a link to a nice feature story on him:
In the photo above -- that's Lew on the right (light blue shirt), observing Vijay Singh make a proper drop at the 2005 US Open at Pinehurst.
