NEED NEW FITTED CLUBS-See Chris Ioriatti (L) and Eric Russel at the Mistwood Golf Performance Center in Romeville, Call (815)-254-3333 or go visit Mistwoodgolfgc.com. _____________________________________________________________________
THE GOG BLOG-by RORY SPEARS, Director of Content and Creation for Golfers on Golf. Follow Rory on Twitter @GogBlogGuy or at Facebook and LinkedIn/Instagram.
Photo Courtesy of the PGA Tour by Stan Badz.
Iowa native Zach Johnson has been named the 2020 winner of the Payne Stewart Award.
The award is presented to a player who shows Stewart’s character, sportsmanship and charitable giving.
Johnson will be honored during PGA Tour-Tour Championship week on September 2nd, from 7-7:30 Est on the Golf Channel ,and held at the Southern Exchange in Atlanta Georgia.
20 Jun 1999: Payne Stewart of the United States celebrates victory with the trophy after winning the 1999 US Open.
Stewart was an 11-time winner on the PGA Tour and is a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame. He tragically died while in route to the PGA Tour championship in Houston Texas.
The Southern Company was the Tour Championship Sponsor in 1999, the year of Stewart’s passing.
One year later the PGA Tour announced the creation of the Stewart Award, and the Southern Company has supported it’s presentation ever since.
Payne Stewart award winners are recognized by the Kemper Lakes Golf Club in Kildeer Illinois, home of the 1989 PGA Championship where Stewart won his first major championship. Winners have their pictures posted on the wall in the clubhouse, near a photograph of Stewart.
Zach Johnson at the opening of the new PXG Store in Northbrook Illinois.
“I never got to meet Payne, but I loved him,” Johnson said. “I loved how he played the game certainly as a competitor but then how he lived his life off the golf course-he’s a model. I remember going to the Tour Championship and the Payne Stewart Award Ceremony my rookie year and thinking, ‘This is the Pinnacle of a PGA Tour Players career.’ It’s about how you utilize the gifts you are given, and I know Payne lived that way.”
“I am deeply grateful and honored. I don’t like being in the limelight a whole lot, but in this regard I hope to be a small piece of his legacy.”
Johnson 44, was born in Iowa City but was raised 30 miles north in Cedar Rapids, where he started playing golf at age 10, at the Elmcrest Country Club, the home of the annual Zach Johnson Foundation Classic.
“Zach would say he’s just a normal guy from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, but in truth, he has one of the most compelling stories on the PGA Tour in the last 25 years, a fearless underdog, who has carved out an incredibly successful career though hard work and a dedication to his craft,” said PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan.
Johnson has played in 9 Team USA events, four Presidents Cups and five Ryder Cup Teams. He has won the Masters and the British Open at St. Andrews, one of the few players to accomplish the feat. Johnson sits on the John Deere Classic board of directors, the tournament Stewart told Golfers on Golf was the most important tournament he ever won. Since it was his first win on tour, and the only one Stewart’s dad saw him win before passing away from cancer.
Johnson gets to choose a charity of his choice to donate a $300,000 amount to for winning the Payne Stewart Award. Johnson selected his foundation to be the recipient of the money. Zach Johnson is the 23rd winner of the Payne Stewart award.