Capping what has been a historic 48 hours for the man now referred to as “Mr. 58,” the PGA TOUR and Southern Company today announced that Jim Furyk is the 2016 recipient of the Payne Stewart Award.
Furyk will be honored on Tuesday, September 20, at the Payne Stewart Award Ceremony in conjunction with the TOUR Championship by Coca-Cola in Atlanta. The ceremony will be televised live on Golf Channel as part of a “Golf Central” special from 7-8 p.m. ET.
Presented annually since 2000, the Payne Stewart Award is given to a professional golfer who best exemplifies Stewart’s steadfast values of character, charity and sportsmanship. Stewart, an 11-time winner on the PGA TOUR and World Golf Hall of Fame Member, died tragically the week of the TOUR Championship in 1999.
“I am incredibly honored to receive the Payne Stewart Award,” said Furyk. “I was fortunate enough to know Payne as a colleague and friend, and I always admired the character and spirit he brought to the game of golf. The Payne Stewart Award is an important part of the TOUR’s efforts to honor Payne’s legacy. Knowing my name will be forever linked to him through this honor is extremely humbling, and I am very grateful.”
Among the highlights of Furyk’s impressive career – in addition to his 58, not to mention the 59 he shot at the 2013 BMW Championship – is his 2003 U.S. Open triumph at Olympia Fields. He has also been a consistent competitor in annual team matches, representing the United States on nine consecutive Ryder Cup teams and seven Presidents Cup teams. But Furyk is also respected for how he handles himself outside the ropes. In 2015, Furyk received the ASAP Sports/Jim Murray Award from the Golf Writers Association of America, which honors a player who is cooperative and accommodating to the media.
Furyk, a 17-time PGA TOUR winner, is the 19th recipient of the Payne Stewart Award. Among that list, nine are Members of the World Golf Hall of Fame, including the inaugural recipients Byron Nelson, Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer.
