In the nearly four-decade long career of Billy Andrade, he has collected numerous awards. Yet his latest stands out as one of the most special.
Andrade has been named the 25th recipient of the Payne Stewart Award, the PGA Tour announced Wednesday.
“It’s very special,” Andrade said. “Payne was unbelievable to me and I got to know him very well. I’m speechless really, to think that now I’m part of this elite group of past recipients who have all done it the right way.
“It’s really nice to see that people have watched and seen that I can inspire others, and I can’t thank Southern Company, the Tour and Jay Monahan enough to now call myself a Payne Stewart Award recipient.”
The Payne Stewart Award is presented annually by the PGA Tour to a professional golfer who best exemplifies Stewart’s steadfast values of character, charity and sportsmanship. Stewart, an 11-time Tour winner and World Golf Hall of Fame member, died 23 years ago during the week of the Tour Championship.
Andrade, 58, and 2005 recipient Brad Faxon have worked together since 1991 to support children’s charities in Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island. They created the Billy Andrade/Brad Faxon Charities for Children, Inc., which has raised $25 million since its inception and now partners with 61 different charities. The duo also started the CVS Health Charity Classic, an annual pro-am in Massachusetts. In 2020 and 2021, the event transitioned into the CVS Health Foundation Hometown Fund, which provided $2 million in grants annually to support the organizations that are providing access to health care, education and social services to children and families.
Every May at East Lake Golf Club, Andrade and fellow Atlanta resident Stewart Cink, the 2017 recipient, host the East Lake Invitational, a charity pro-am that benefits the neighborhood revitalization efforts of the East Lake Foundation. The event attracts celebrities, athletes and professional golfers.
Andrade will be honored Tuesday, August 23, at the Payne Stewart Award Ceremony in conjunction with the Tour Championship. The ceremony will be televised live on Golf Channel as part of a “Golf Central” special from 7-8 p.m. ET at Southern Exchange in downtown Atlanta.
“Billy Andrade is an ideal representation of a Payne Stewart Award recipient,” PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan said. “As someone who exudes kindness and respect, Billy is a stranger to no one, and has spent his career fostering meaningful relationships. Those relationships have helped fuel his charitable endeavors, which have spanned more than three decades. That unwavering commitment to helping others is what draws so many people to Billy, and what would certainly make Payne proud.”