Brandt Snedeker brings legacy of compassion, emotion to Payne Stewart Award

There will be tears shed. That’s a given.

Brandt Snedeker cried when he got the call in July telling him that he had won the 2024 Payne Stewart Award presented by Southern Company. And just practicing the acceptance speech that he will give in Atlanta on Tuesday night has turned the waterworks on, as well.

“I was like, oh gosh, well, maybe we'll just get out the tears now,” Snedeker’s wife Mandy says. “But that is part of who he is and why he's so lovely.”

Snedeker’s long-time friend Davis Love III, who will be a part of Tuesday’s ceremony on the Golf Channel, puts him among the top three criers in golf – right behind Steve Stricker and Bubba Watson on the list.

“It’s going to be bad,” Love says with a chuckle. “But you know what? He’s got a written speech, so he’s got a chance. And a teleprompter, hopefully.”

Snedeker takes the kidding in good humor, though.

“I’m sure I’ll cry during the speech at some point,” he says. “But that means you care. So, I’m okay with it.”

And make no mistake. The Payne Stewart Award, which is given annually to a golfer who epitomizes the late pro’s character, sportsmanship and commitment to charitable giving, means the world to Snedeker. So, what if he cries on national television?

Stewart was one of Snedeker’s “guys” when he was a kid, along with Tom Watson and everyone’s favorite, Arnold Palmer. The ties to the colorful pro, who died in a plane crash when Snedeker was 19 years old, were strong. Snedeker’s parents were from Stewart’s hometown of Springfield, Missouri. His grandmother knew Stewart’s father and was “obsessed,” Snedeker says, smiling, with the three-time major champion. And while she didn’t play herself, she’s the one who urged her grandson to take up the game.

“I loved the way he interacted with the crowd,” Snedeker says. “I loved his personality. You could see it come through on the golf course. I loved the competitor. … One-on-one, he was pretty hard to beat and just the way he went about it, I love that fact that you always knew where he was. You always knew what he was doing. He stuck out.”

When Snedeker made it to the TOUR Championship as a PGA TOUR rookie in 2007, he attended the dinner where Hal Sutton accepted the Payne Stewart Award. And he’s been in the audience every other year that he’s advanced to the final FedExCup Playoffs event at East Lake Golf Club.

Now he is part of Stewart’s legacy, as well.

“It's so cool to, even though I never got to meet him, feel like I've kind of accomplished something pretty cool to be close to him.” Snedeker says.

“He’s always said his favorite golfer and the one he admired the most … was Payne Stewart,” says Mandy Snedeker, who started dating her future husband when she was a senior and he was a junior at Vanderbilt. “So, it's cool how it comes full circle.”

Love, who has the same agent as Snedeker, is a Payne Stewart Award winner, too. The two have shared many meals and played countless practice rounds together. Snedeker says Love, who captained Snedeker in two Ryder Cups, has been a “huge” influence in his life, not just in the way he played the game but the way he conducted himself.

“I really realized how important their relationship was when Brant played for him on the Ryder Cup team, and they had the big loss on the last day, and then the chance to redeem themselves back in 2016 when (Davis) was the captain again, and he got picked again for the team,” Mandy Snedeker says.

“It was like he was so determined and focused to do it, not just obviously for your teammates or your country, but he kept talking about how important he wanted to do it for Davis,” she continued. “Davis was always kind of there for him, even when he was really young. Now that you're on the flip side, you see how important that is and what a difference it makes.”

Love says events like Tuesday night are important to see the “tradition and history, legacy, continuity get handed down from generation to generation.” And the World Golf Hall of Famer adds that if a TOUR sponsor like Southern Company wanted to create the ideal player, he knows the perfect prototype.

“You want them to be an exciting player and you want them to have a special skill that makes them stand out,” Love says. “You also want them to be a fan favorite, and you want them to be smiling when they're playing good and emotional when they play bad. And you want them to be great in pro-ams, and you want them to give back to charity and you want them to be great in interviews.

“You just described Brandt Snedeker. You don't want a boring guy that just makes a lot of birdies and is not entertaining. You want Brandt -- great with sponsors, great in the boardroom and wants to give back to the TOUR as a player rep and all the things that Brandt does.

“Brandt gets it. And he has always gotten it from a young age. So, it's going to be emotional. … I'm happy for him. It's well deserved.”

In 2012, Snedeker had another memorable week at East Lake when he beat Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods to win The TOUR Championship and the FedExCup. The $10 million bonus that came with the FedExCup helped give the nine-time PGA TOUR champ and his wife the freedom to start a foundation that had long been on their radar screen.

“We just thought it was the right thing to do,” Snedeker says.

“We're just so blessed to have the platform that we do, and just to get the word out, it's easy and it really wasn't ever up for debate,” Mandy Snedeker agrees. “It was just more of the timing, when the timing was right.”

Snedeker had long been an interested observer at charity outings, picking the brains of friends like Love, Zack Johnson and David Toms to see how they ran their foundations. He and his wife started small, hoping to help where they saw a need, but their foundation has been so successful that it can now sustain charitable giving of between $200,000-300,000 a year in perpetuity. And the goal is to one day get to $1 million, Snedeker says.

As part of the Payne Stewart Award, a donation of $300,000 will be made to the Snedeker Foundation to help fund its mission of supporting athletic and social initiatives for young people across the middle Tennessee area. In addition, grants of $100,000 will be given to the Stewart Family Foundation and the Payne Stewart Memorial, respectively.

One of the Snedeker Foundation’s two primary charities is Our Kids Center, which has provided 24/7 crisis counseling and medical services to more than 30,000 children who have been victims of sexual abuse. Mandy Snedeker is a former president and long-time member of the board of directors of the organization she calls “small but mighty.”

“Being at some of these dinners where you have a survivor telling their story and how they're abused when they're a child and you see somebody else in the room stand up and say, I was abused. I never told anybody.” Snedeker says. “… (They say if) Our Kids Foundation was around when I was a kid, I would've been so much different a person.

“So, when you have those moments like that, you're like, oh gosh, this is why we did this. This is why we want to give back and help these people.”

Mandy Snedeker says becoming parents has amplified their desire to help.

“When we had kids, I think it made it all too real,” she explains. “People have children our kids' age that this is happening to, and it's just terrifying and scary. And then on the flip side, it’s reassuring to know that there's some place to go and we can tell people about this place. … So, I just feel like it was such a blessing to use Brandt's platform to be able to just even get the word out about the organization.”

The other primary charity supported by the Snedeker Foundation is the Sneds Tour, which is the junior golf circuit of the Tennessee Golf Foundation. Snedeker played on the tour as a kid, and he took over as a sponsor from Vince Gill several years ago as membership declined and funding was starting to dry up. The Sneds Tour now has more than 2,000 members and operates 174 events. Scholarships are available to make the game more affordable, as well.

“I want to make sure stay stays around forever,” Snedeker says. “… I really felt like it was an easy deal for me to do.”

Not unlike Love and his RSM Classic on the PGA TOUR, Snedeker has also partnered with the Korn Ferry Tour to operate the Simmons Bank Open for the Snedeker Foundation. The tournament, which will be played Sept. 12-15, enables the organization to support more youth-focused charities in the Nashville area and has provided a place to compete for pros like world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, Lanto Griffin and Austin Smotherman. Snedeker spends the week there interacting with the young pros who are there chasing their dreams.

“It's funny, I always forget how many guys out here now (on TOUR) … that played in that event,” says Snedeker, who spent two full seasons and part of another on the Korn Ferry Tour. “I just never even think about it. And they come up and say, thanks so much for doing that. I'm like, well, when I needed a place to play, it's part of it. …

“And so, all those guys, I'm always cheering for them. They're always on my radar. So, it's fun. I feel I'm kind of connected with them in a way.”

Like any competitor, he doesn’t like being beaten by them, though.

But a series of injuries have short-circuited Snedeker’s golf in recent years. The 43-year-old has had two hip surgeries as well as an operation to take a bone out of his hip and put it in his sternum to stabilize the manubrium joint. That procedure sidelined him for six months last year. He’s also had surgeries on a finger, toe and knee that kept him sidelined.

In 22 starts this year, the man who shot 59 at Sedgefield Country Club to win the 2018 Wyndham Championship only made five cuts. He’ll start the FedExCup Fall ranked 208th and looking forward to eliminating the scar tissue – literally and figuratively – that has been holding him back.

“I feel blessed obviously to be in this position I'm in,” Snedeker says. “I still feel like I have a lot in the tank. I still feel like I can play some great golf and win some more tournaments. This year's been a tough year, just come back from injury and haven't been playing well. But I'm kind of at peace with where I am.

“I guess in my career I want to have a second act. I want to be a Steve Stricker and win a bunch after 42, 43 and play great golf. But if that doesn't happen, I'm completely content with how I've done out here and what I've done and what I've accomplished.”

On Tuesday in Atlanta, though, birdies and bogeys won’t be front and center. Instead, Snedeker will be celebrated for what he unselfishly does for other people.

“It just feels like it's my responsibility,” Snedeker says. “I don't do it for me. I do it because it's the right thing to do and it's what I should be doing. I'm blessed.

“I mean, I play games for a living. So, it's fun to see those fruits come, to see how it impacts other people. I get more out seeing people smile and have fun than I do about anything it does for me.”