Thursday, November 2, 2000
First Stewart Award moves Byron
Nelson
By Brad Townsend
The Dallas Morning News (KRT)
ATLANTA — Golf legend Byron Nelson
has received more awards than he can count, but none that touched
him more personally than the one he received Wednesday.
Nelson, Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer
were named as the first recipients of the Payne Stewart Award
during a ceremony at East Lake Golf Club, site of this week's
Tour Championship.
Nelson, 88, traveled to Atlanta with wife
Peggy and was moved by the occasion. Stewart died in a plane crash
Oct. 25, 1999. The Payne Stewart Award was created by the PGA
Tour to perpetuate Stewart's memory and commitment to golf.
“Payne Stewart was one of my absolute
great friends,” Nelson said. “I think the friendship
that I developed with Payne was one of the highlights of my life
as far as association with people that think right, act right
and love the game of golf.”
Stewart, who played at SMU, had several
heartbreaking defeats in the Nelson Classic, particularly his
`85 playoff loss to Bob Eastwood, before winning the tournament
in 1990.
Stewart and Nelson became close during those
years and remained so until Stewart's death. Nelson on Wednesday
recalled spending three days with Payne and wife Tracey.
“We ate wonderfully well because he
cooked (barbecued) almost all day long, every day,” Nelson
said. “I think that is one of the things he enjoyed almost
as much as he did playing golf.”
Palmer, 71, also attended Wednesday's ceremony.
Nicklaus, who had a prior commitment, sent a videotape expressing
his appreciation for the award and his friendship with Stewart.
Tracey Stewart attended the ceremony, as
did most of the players participating in the Tour Championship,
which begins Thursday. It was early in the week of last year's
Tour Championship in Houston that players were rocked by news
of Stewart's death.
Paul Azinger, Stewart's closest friend on
the tour, said he is glad the Stewart Award was created, but even
now finds it difficult to think about the accident that also killed
five others.
“The Greeks, they mourn forever,”
Azinger said. “I don't know what's right and what's wrong
with respect to putting closure on something. I don't know if
you can put a date on closure.”
Eyeing Lord Byron
Tiger Woods
can't touch Byron Nelson's record of 18 victories in a season.
Not this year, anyway.
But Woods admitted he has another of Nelson's
hallowed marks in his immediate sights: His raw scoring average
of 68.33 set in 1945. Woods' raw scoring average, with this week's
Tour Championship and next week's American Express Championship
remaining, is 68.10.
“I would like to do something a little
bit lower than that (Nelson's mark), yeah,” Woods said. “I
have a goal in mind. I haven't quite got there yet, but I'm sure
you could probably figure it out.”
In other words, Woods would like to get
below 68.0. With an adjusted scoring average of 67.68, Woods already
appears likely to break his own adjusted-average mark of 68.43,
set last year.
Parnevik to play
Despite continued hip soreness due to arthroscopic
surgery in August, Jesper Parnevik arrived in Atlanta on Wednesday
and has decided to try to play in the Tour Championship. The original
30-player field was whittled to 29 Tuesday when Jim Furyk withdrew
due to a sore wrist.
(c) 2000, The Dallas Morning
News.
Visit The Dallas Morning News on the World Wide Web at http://www.dallasnews.com/
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
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