Growing up on the municipal golf courses of Nashville, Tennessee, as a slender, shaggy-haired blond with an infectious smile, Brandt Snedeker’s favorite player was Payne Stewart. Snedeker’s family and the PGA Tour champion shared roots in Springfield, Missouri. (Snedeker’s father’s side grew up there while his mother went to college there.) Now they share something else in common.
Snedeker, a 43-year-old nine-time PGA Tour winner, has been named the 2024 recipient of the Tour’s Payne Stewart Award presented by Southern Company. The award is presented annually to a professional golfer who best exemplifies Stewart’s steadfast values of character, charity and sportsmanship.
“It’s an amazing honor and privilege to be a recipient of this award,” said Snedeker. “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.”
The announcement was made on Tuesday fittingly at the Wyndham Championship in Greensboro, North Carolina, the site of his bookend victories. Snedeker notched his maiden Tour title, shooting 63 at Forest Oaks, then tournament host, in the final round in 2007, and went on to be named the Tour’s Rookie of the Year. In 2018, he opened with a 59 at Sedgefield Country Club, becoming the 10th player in Tour history to post a sub-60 round in competition, and won the Wyndham Championship for a second time and his ninth and most recent trophy. Known for his quick-twitch swing that produces precision irons and a jab putting stroke that has long been the envy of the Tour, Snedeker won the 2012 FedEx Cup title and a bonus of $10 million, which led Golfweek to take liberty with his longtime nickname and use the cheeky headline “$ned$.”
But Snedeker took his new-found wealth as an opportunity to launch the Snedeker Foundation shortly thereafter with his wife Mandy. For more than a decade, the organization has focused its efforts on supporting youth initiatives on both the social and athletic fronts across Middle Tennessee. Our Kids, one of the Foundation’s most prominent initiatives, provides expert medical evaluations and crisis counseling services in response to concerns of child sexual abuse. Since 1987, Our Kids has evaluated more than 30,000 children with 65 percent of them being age 7 or younger.
Another focus of Snedeker’s charitable giving has been geared toward the junior game, where he has helped provide a…
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