Styledtoatee.com keenly recognizes the propriety of Davis Love III being named recipient of the 2008 Payne Stewart Award.
Love, who was honored during a private reception Wednesday night as part of the festivities surrounding this week’s TOUR Championship in Atlanta, is a standard-bearer of class and style, and much of his career has been emblematic of what’s best about the game.
The same, of course, could be said of Stewart, a PGA champion, two-time U.S. Open champ, World Golf Hall of Fame member and 11-time winner on Tour who died the week of THE TOUR Championship in 1999.
Theofficial PGA Tour announcementsays the award serves "to perpetuate his memory by annually honoring a player who reflects Stewart’s respect for the traditions of the game, his commitment to uphold the game’s heritage of charitable support and his professional and meticulous presentation of himself and the sport through his dress and conduct."
Styledtoatee.com was so enamored with Stewart’s signature style that in one of our very first musings we suggested the American Ryder Cup team wear plus-foursduring a practice round to honor Stewart, who wore those signature short pants, so named for being cut four inches below the knee.
Davis is a style maven of a different sort. The name, his boyish looks, the elegant swing and even the bounce in his fairway gait always made it look like he walked off the set at a Polo Ralph Lauren casting call, the sportswear endorsement he signed on for long ago. That he piled 19 Tour victories on top of all that elevated him to elite status.
The recognition comes in part because of Love’s charity, The Davis Love Foundation, which works with children and families who are at risk. The foundation provides grants and donations to community-based programs that focus on children and families in need.
Love becomes the 11th recipient of the award. The inaugural Payne Stewart Award was presented in 2000 to Byron Nelson, Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer.
Ben Crenshaw was the 2001 recipient, followed by Nick Price (2002), Tom Watson (2003), Jay Haas (2004), Brad Faxon (2005), Gary Player (2006) and Hal Sutton (2007). — Rico Williams
