Stewart Cink receives Payne Stewart Award for charitable work

Stewart Cink will receive the Payne Stewart Award presented by Southern Company, the PGA Tour announced Monday. 

Cink will be honored Sept. 19 at the Payne Stewart Award Ceremony in conjunction with the Tour Championship. He has been active in contributing to charities nationwide while helping those in need in the Atlanta area, where he lives with his wife Lisa.

He has been a leader in supporting the East Lake Foundation, one of the two primary beneficiaries of the Tour Championship, along with the First Tee of East Lake. He and Lisa also have created the Cink It Challenge to benefit local charities.

“Stewart Cink epitomizes the ideals around which the Payne Stewart Award is built – character, charity and sportsmanship,” PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan said in a statement. 

“When his wife Lisa dug in for her fight against breast cancer, Stewart was a pillar of strength and provided an admirable sense of perspective. He had done similarly a few years earlier when he won the Open Championship, even as many were cheering on the sentimental favorite, Tom Watson. Stewart smiled. He understood. In every sense of the words he showed character and sportsmanship.”

A graduate of Georgia Tech, Cink became a full-time player on the PGA Tour in 1997. He has six Tour victories, including the 2009 British Open at Turnberry, when he beat Tom Watson in a playoff.

The Payne Stewart Award is presented annually to a professional golfer who best exemplifies Stewart’s steadfast values of character, charity and sportsmanship.