Payne Stewart Award: Honoring his commitment to charity

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Payne Stewart's memory is honored with the Payne Stewart Award, presented annually to a player sharing his respect for the traditions of the game and his commitment to uphold the game's heritage of charitable support.

Editor's Note: The Payne Stewart Award is named for the 11-time winner on the PGA TOUR who died the week of the TOUR Championship by Coca-Cola in 1999. The award was created by the PGA TOUR policy board to perpetuate Stewart's memory and is presented annually at the TOUR Championship to a player sharing Stewart's many admirable traits. Each week leading up to the announcement of this year's winner, PGATOUR.COM will select one of Stewart's qualities and highlight how those same qualities were shared by some of the previous winners of the Payne Stewart Award (click here for complete coverage).

As golf's everyman walked up the 17th fairway on Sunday afternoon of the 2009 Masters, 8,000 of the biggest Kenny Perry fans on the planet must have been making plans for the victory parade for their favorite son on the streets of Franklin, Ky. (population 8,000 by the way).

When Perry walked off the 18th green after back-to-back bogeys, he had lost sole possession of the lead and would falter in the three-man playoff as Angel Cabrera eventually donned the green jacket. For Franklin, it was a punch in the gut with a sledgehammer.

Kenny Perry is Franklin, Ky., and has maintained the small-town roots with him during his amazing PGA TOUR ride. It was Perry who rolled up his sleeves and built his town's only public golf course. There's no out of bounds on the right because Perry wanted to make the course friendly to the everyman golfer and most of those guys slice the ball. Green fees are $25, which includes the cart.

Alumni and current students at Lipcomb University, a Christian school in Nashville, also felt the sting of watching their special donor lose his best shot at his first major. Men like Perry just don't grow on trees in Tennessee or any of the other 49 states.

Perry donates five percent of every dollar he earns on the TOUR to the college, which has amounted to an amazing $550,000 and counting. The idea was that of friend and local businessman Ronnie Ferguson who loaned Perry $5,000 for one final try at Q-School.

"I had no clue it would turn out this way," Ferguson says. "But that's just how life is sometimes. This will live on long after Kenny is done playing golf."

Leaving a lasting impression is important to Kenny Perry, just as it was for Payne Stewart. Both knew their charitable giving impacts many more lives than any of their pin-hunting 5-irons or clutch putts. Perry's attitude toward those less fortunate than he and his overall make-up as a player, competitor and gentleman made him an obvious choice to receive the Payne Stewart Award in 2009.

Other winners of the Payne Stewart Award also have made significant charitable contributions.

Tom Lehman, who won in 2010, has raised more than $4.2 million for the Children's Cancer Research Fund through his golf tournament.

Tom Watson, winner of the award in 2003, established the Bruce Edwards Trust to help defray his caddie's medical bills during his treatment for ALS. He later became a highly visible supporter of the "Driving 4 Life" fundraising campaign that helps raise public awareness for the disease that took Edwards' life.

When Brad Faxon he pulled out the flat stick, he was simply one of the best ever. Faxon led the TOUR in putting average in 1996, 1999 and 2000 (he set a record with only 1.704 putts in regulation). When it comes to supporting his home state of Rhode Island, Faxon is equally brilliant.

In 1991, Faxon and fellow TOUR pro Billy Andrade formed the Bill Andrade/Brad Faxon Charities for Children, Inc., a non-profit that has donated more than $3 million to needy children in Rhode Island. Faxon and Andrade serve as hosts of the CVS Charity Classic at the Rhode Island Country Club each June and Faxon also runs his own junior golf foundation, which include a scholarship for kids involved in the program.

Faxon's wife, Dory, has given herself by leading the PGA TOUR Wives Association, which focuses on giving back to many of the golf communities the TOUR visits. Not surprisingly, the TOUR veteran received the Payne Stewart Award in 2005.

One of three inaugural winners of the Payne Stewart Award in 2000, Byron Nelson deserved the nod for his fabulous efforts on the golf course and his unrivaled class away from it. The tournament named for him, the HP Byron Nelson Classic in Las Colinas, Texas, continues to further ratify his selection with each dollar contributed to charity. Traditionally one of the TOUR's most prolific charitable machines, the HP Byron Nelson Classic has surpassed the $100 million mark, a fitting tribute to the legendary namesake.

Payne and Tracey Stewart walked across a field back to the clubhouse after a heart-wrenching playoff loss at the same Byron Nelson Classic back in 1985. It was a defining moment of his early struggles as a pro, but would become an indelible image of the couples' love and their realization that there's more to this life than missed opportunities on the golf course. Helping others became a passion and pursuit that continues more than 10 years after his death. And the men who have won the award named after him continue that tradition of giving back.

By the way, Payne would win the Byron Nelson Classic five years after that loss. Yeah, he could play a little, too.