Anders Janson was a respected magazine editor in Sweden who joined the Association in 1995.
He regularly attended events on the continent, especially in the early 90s, but his death last month followed a five-year battle with cancer. Goran Zachrisson pays this tribute:
The best people are those, who will make much of others and little of themselves. That was Anders Janson, opiniated and no pushover, but always sensitive to others.
He was introduced to golf after having worked on the sports desk at one of the now exctinct, old fashioned sports papers; the one that was always accurate, the one that remembered and celebrated the first 100 years of the Canoeing Club of Nyköping (where is that?) or the fact that the right handed javelin thrower Eric Lemming was in fact left handed. (Olympic Champion 1912, 62.23 metres.) This kind of detailed information forms the foundation for Sportsworld anywhere and Anders brought his experiences to golf in Sweden, when the game was starting to grow.
After a spell at Svenska Dagbladet, the Times of Sweden, he, in 1973, became the Editor of Svensk Golf, today the largest golf magazine in Europe. Every golfing household in Sweden recieves a copy and I believe 350,000 copies are printed monthly. He stayed on as Editor until 1994.
But more importantly he edited several voluminous books about the growth of golf in Sweden, where every little aspect of the game for the past hundred years was covered. He was zealously thorough, but his observations were thoughtful and never did he lose himself in details. He also became a founding member of the Swedish Golf Writers Association and the Golfing Historical Society of Sweden.
Working for the Swedish Golf Federation meant that he not only grew with the game; sometimes it was the other way around. He was passionately involved in trying to spread the traditions and essence of golf to quarters where golf hitherto had been unheard of. He became a revered advisor to the Federation and ironically, it is possible that his quiet demeanour brought him power, something that he never recognised.
All the while Anders stayed in touch with general sports in Sweden. He was President of the Sportwriters Association in Stockholm until only a few weeks before his illness got the better of him. He had fought cancer for the last five years, not once complaining.
Anders was as pleased as he was proud of being a member of the Association of Golf Writers. He only wished he had had more time to meet with us, to listen and be part of it all. My feeling is that he had more to tell us, than we him. He was 63 years old and is survived by his wife, Ylva, and five children.
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