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Mark Schlabach, ESPN Senior Writer
Brandt Snedeker, a nine-time winner on the PGA Tour, has been named the 2024 recipient of the Payne Stewart Award presented by Southern Company, which is presented annually to a golfer who best exemplifies the late World Golf Hall of Famer’s values of character, charity and sportsmanship.
For more than a decade, Snedeker, 43, and his wife, Mandy, have operated the Snedeker Foundation, which has focused on assisting youth in Tennessee through sexual abuse prevention and promoting the junior game.
Snedeker, the 2012 FedEx Cup champion, will be honored at the Tour Championship at Atlanta’s East Lake Golf Club on Aug. 27.
“Brandt Snedeker exemplifies everything the Payne Stewart Award represents,” PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan said in a statement. “As one of our game’s most respected players, Brandt has displayed a steadfast commitment to using his platform to better the lives of so many families in his home state of Tennessee.
“He and Mandy have worked tirelessly to build their family foundation and establish opportunities for children on and off the golf course, and it’s inspiring to know those efforts will continue for years to come.”
Among other initiatives, the Snedeker Foundation has teamed up with the Tennessee Golf Foundation to form a year-round junior golf tour, the Sneds Tour, that operates 174 events and offers lower entry and registration fees. The foundation also helped fund a practice facility for Nashville Christian School that will also be used by students at the Tennessee School for the Blind.
The Simmons Bank Open for the Snedeker Foundation, an annual event on the Korn Ferry Tour, has raised more than $1 million for charities since 2017.
Stewart, whose 11 PGA Tour victories included wins at the 1989 PGA Championship and U.S. Opens in 1991 and 1999, died in a plane crash in South Dakota on Oct. 25, 1999.
“It’s an amazing honor and privilege to be a recipient of this award,” Snedeker said. “With my family being from Springfield, Missouri, Payne’s hometown, he was my favorite golfer growing up and to have my name on this trophy is unbelievable. When you’re recognized for an award like this, it means not only are you a good player, but you’re a good person. This was one of my dreams and it came true.”