THE TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP PRESENTED BY SOUTHERN COMPANY

November 1, 2000

Bill Dahlberg

Tim Finchem

Byron Nelson

Jack Nicklaus

Arnold Palmer

MIKE TIRICO: Thank you and good afternoon. Isn't it fitting that we have a great day for what truly is a great celebration. Thank you for joining us for the presentation of the Inaugural Payne Stewart Award. Perhaps the best way that we can describe to you what this award is all about is using the very same words the PGA TOUR Policy Board used when it established the award. It is an award that will be presented annually to a PGA TOUR player who shares Payne Stewart's respect for the traditions of the game; his commitment to uphold the game's heritage of charitable support and his professional and personal integrity and comportment. With that in mind I would now like to introduce our first speaker, the Commissioner of the PGA TOUR, Mr. Tim Finchem. (APPLAUSE)

COMMISSIONER FINCHEM: Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. First of all, let me thank our players for taking a few minutes to be with us today out of their practice time for a very important Championship and let me recognize three very special guests: First and foremost, Tracey Stewart. (APPLAUSE) Secondly, the chairman and CEO of our presenting sponsor, the Southern Company, Bill Dahlberg. Bill, thank you for being here. (APPLAUSE) And finally, our host, the chairman of the East Lake Foundation and the man who has restored East Lake to its early prominence the home of Bobby Jones, Tom Cousins. Tom. (APPLAUSE) This is an important week, not only because of the special and important competition that we will have here this week, but also because it affords us the opportunity to remember and celebrate one of the Tour's great champions and personalities, Payne Stewart. Payne was taken from us in that tragic accident the week of THE TOUR Championship last year. After that tragedy there were numerous conversations among, and with players, and fans, about what could be done to perpetuate his memory. We had a host of suggestions from Payne's fans all around the country. In one of our last conversations with Payne among a number of players at the Ryder Cup last fall, Payne again reiterated his concern about how we would in the future maintain our high standards of professionalism, conduct, charitable giving, comportment and respect for the traditions of the game in the face of changing social values. This led to the creation of the Payne Stewart Award, designed not only to perpetuate his memory but also to recognize special distinction in maintaining the high standards of our sport. The Southern Company has joined in this initiative to enhance its impact and special qualities by underwriting a very significant charitable contribution that will be directed to the Payne Stewart Family Foundation and The First Tee facility being built under Bobby Clampett's leadership in Payne's honor at Camp Kanakuk in Missouri. After the Policy Board had sanctioned this award, we reached out to form a nominating committee that included much of the leadership of golf. Some of this committee indicated a preference to recognize the players who, over a significant period of time, have helped establish the standards that we recognize today as so integral to the success of our game. Others on the committee suggested that we should recognize younger players who, as Payne Stewart, clearly tried to achieve these standards by emulating those who have gone before. In the end, we have elected this year to use the inaugural presentation to honor those who have set the standard and who Payne Stewart himself tried to emulate. Next year we will begin the process of recognizing those who now strive to perpetuate it. Thus, today, we honor three special gentlemen who have been instrumental over many decades to define the greatness and professionalism of this game. On and off the golf course these three continued to epitomize all that is respected about golf: their demeanor; their image with the public, the media, the fans and the sponsors have been instrumental in the growth and health of golf in this country and around the world. And, coincidentally, these are three players for whom the three competitive awards each year on the PGA TOUR are named. Ladies and gentlemen, our inaugural Payne Stewart Award winners, three gentlemen for whom Payne always tried to emulate - and I am sure he would be most proud today - are: Byron Nelson, Arnold Palmer, and Jack Nicklaus. Thank you. (APPLAUSE)

MIKE TIRICO: It is so exciting that three of the greatest individuals in this sport will be honored with the inaugural Payne Stewart Award. And, let us hear from them now. Lord Byron won two Masters, two PGAs, as you know, the 1939 U.S. Open is best remembered for the greatest season in the sport by an individual; 1945 with 19 tournament victories, of course, 11 straight, he finished second five times that year as well and compiled a remarkable stroke average of 68.33. Ladies and gentlemen, one of the three inaugural winners of the Payne Stewart Award, Mr. Byron Nelson. (APPLAUSE)

BYRON NELSON: Thank you very much. What a wonderful day and a wonderful privilege to have the great opportunity to be here on such an occasion. Payne Stewart was one of my absolute great friends and I have a few little things that a lot of you maybe don't know that Payne was, I think, the best outside barbecuer that I have ever known. He loved to do it. I spent three days one time with him, Tracey and we ate wonderfully well because he cooked almost all day long everyday. I think that is one of the things he enjoyed almost as much as he did out playing golf. I think that the friendship that I developed with Payne when he won our tournament back in Dallas and before that, 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 and the people that were involved in golf. That is the thing that I hope that all of we professionals will continue to do and especially the great players like the ones here now, will continue to realize what a great game it is and that it has made them and made us what we are today. And we should do everything that we possibly can to help the growth of the game and to help the sponsors that mean so much to them to have the professionals come and play in their tournaments and also to treat those sponsors the way that they should be treated. I think that they do a good job of it, but I think we need to give a little more thought to the things that we need to do to help it because, you know, it is hard for me to believe the monies that they play for today. People ask me how much different is golf now than when I played. Well, I have no answer to that except that I say this right quick, that last year, 1999, my wonderful friend, Loren Roberts won our tournament and he won $540,000 first prize. So when we were saying our goodbyes, why, I told him, I said, I was proud for him for winning the tournament. He had some nice things to say about that and about me. And I said: Let me tell you a story. I said, you won $540,000, and he said, yes, I never expected to win that much in a tournament in my life. So I said, well, in 1945 we had 32 tournaments on the Tour and the total prize money for those three two tournaments was only $520,000. So I think people understand that real well about the growth of the game. The game needs to continue to grow because so many people are involved in it. It is important for the players that play now, and as for when I played, to regive something back to the game other than making a very wonderful living out there which they are doing and they are doing that because the game has grown so well. People have had opportunities to see golf, see great players, and the golf that they play. I don't play golf much anymore. I watch a lot of golf and watch these players and the way they play is absolutely magnificent. I get a great kick out of it. As long as they will continue -- I have said this -- the game will keep on growing as long as the pros themselves will conduct themselves in a manner that is befitting a champion. As long as they will continue to conduct themselves the way they should do with the sponsors and with the galleries and with the press, why, the game will continue to grow. I know people will be there, like today, so many people are here, and I am so pleased that you are. I also would like to thank Mr. Dahlberg and the Southern Company for their wonderful support for this and I don't know how, any way that I can be more grateful to you Mr. Dahlberg and the PGA TOUR (inaudible) (technical difficulties)

MIKE TIRICO: The second of the three inaugural Payne Stewart Award winners, Jack Nicklaus, you know his record, 18 professional majors, far surpassing any golfer before or since; more than 100 victories around the world. The Golden Bear would have loved to have been here today but Jack is honoring a long standing commitment to the Boy's Club of New York. He sends his apologies for not being able to be here to be a part of this special day in the inaugural Payne Stewart Award, but Jack Nicklaus's comments have been videotaped and I call your attention to the Jumbotron in front of the 18th green so we can share the comments of Jack Nicklaus.

JACK NICKLAUS: Good afternoon. I am sorry I can't be with you today. Unfortunately I have previous commitments, but I did want to say hello to Tracey Stewart and, of course, to Byron Nelson, Arnold Palmer, all the assembled guests, players that are there and, of course, all the ladies and gentlemen that are in attendance today. Being able to receive an award and be in the same room with Byron and Arnold is certainly something that is very special to me and of course, to have an award that is being named after Tracey's husband, Payne, I think is something pretty special. You know, Payne was a special guy. We all liked Payne. We all had fun with Payne. We kidded. We had a lot of great things, but Payne had a great feeling towards the game, its traditions. He was a man of personal integrity. He had great professionalism in the way he handled himself in the sport of golf. He was a man of great religious beliefs. He had great family values, of course, he had great commitment to charity. These are all things that this award is all about. That is obvious. The word to recognize is the professionalism and players and the way they handle themselves. And the traditions of the game and the way they dress, the way they feel about the game, keeping the game the way it should be, being role models for the young guys coming up. I know that being with Byron and being with Arnold in this award as the first recipients is a great honor for me. These two guys have been my heroes and my idols for many years, been great friends for many years, and to be chosen with them is a great honor to me. They certainly are the epitome of what this award is all about. So thank you so much for choosing me, and being part of it. I also want to thank the Southern Company for their participation in the Payne Stewart grant and I know it will benefit a lot of charities. I must say that this is a very, very special award to me and I thank you for giving me this honor. (APPLAUSE)

MIKE TIRICO: As we continue alphabetically, the third recipient of the Inaugural Payne Stewart Award more than 80 professional victories including four Masters, two British Opens, five majors, a member of the SENIOR PGA TOUR, please welcome the, King, Arnold Palmer. (APPLAUSE)

ARNOLD PALMER: Thank you. Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen and Tracey, Commissioner, Mr. Dahlberg, ladies and gentlemen. It is a great pleasure for me to be here and to help honor Payne Stewart and to tell you about Payne. I think that most of you have heard a great many things about him. I can remember when he first came to Bay Hill and walked into my office and we talked about things that were important to him and of course those things revolved around the game of golf and his participation in the game and about the future of the game. And he was concerned very much about the future of the game. So Payne Stewart not only played the game very well. He had a lot of thoughts about what the game should be and how it should be conducted in the years to come. I can remember some of the fun things and you heard Jack talk about Byron and myself and what Payne thought about all those things, but I can remember the days when Payne Stewart and I used to play, have a little game at Bay Hill quite a lot - I think for most of all the years that we played in the tournament at Bay Hill and we played in the shootout and things such as that. We had a fun and standing game of 20 dollars each time we played. And the bad news is I lost most of the time. At any rate, Payne Stewart devoted himself to his family, to his church, to his hospital and to golf. And I can remember when he won the Bay Hill tournament, he gave his entire purse to the hospital. Now you have got to think about that a little bit and think about the sacrifice that that might have meant, but what it might have meant to the hospital and to the people in that hospital. And if there is something today that we need to think about in the game of golf - and I am saying this to the young people who are following Payne Stewart's footsteps - and that is conduct yourself and remember the traditions, the integrity of the game of golf. It is very important to continue to keep those things in mind as we go through life and when you think about the position that we have arrived at at this stage - we have heard about the money that we play for, we have heard about all the good things that have happened in the game, and we must protect those things for the future and for the future Payne Stewarts coming along in the game of golf. And our young people today must remember that. It is a business, but it is a business that we must conduct ourselves and protect; protect for the young people coming along, whether it be the people in The First Tee Program; whether it be the people who are caddies now on golf courses such as East Lake and so forth. It is important that our players, all of the players, that are now participating on the Tour remember where this all came from and how it started. You heard Byron Nelson talk about the monies. Well, I can remember the monies when I started, and 10 or 12,000 or $15,000 was a purse, the total purse. It wasn't a prize. It was the whole thing for 150 players. So it is going to get even better as time goes on. But that is provided by the sponsors who are extremely important to the future of the Tour and the players conducting themselves as gentlemen and making all the things that are happening to them something that they revere and will revere in the future and they let the people know how much they appreciate what is happening to them. Ladies and gentlemen, it is a great pleasure for me to be here with Byron Nelson and Jack Nicklaus. And I had the pleasure of playing with Byron Nelson a few times earlier in our career, and I have got to tell you that he was one man that I looked up to from the day I started looking at his blueprints that he made when he was the pro at Inverness in Toledo, Ohio. Of course he could tell you about all that, but he was a man that really set a lot of standards for the game of golf and I think all of us who have played the game appreciate those high standards. If there is one thing I urge every player, every golfer in the world, it is to protect the high standards that have been established by those who have preceded us in this game. Tracey, it is a pleasure for me to be here and thank all of you who made it possible for me to have this opportunity. Thank you. (APPLAUSE).

MIKE TIRICO: You heard a few references to the Southern Company being important to this event, to this award and also to this Atlanta community. Time now to hear from the Chairman and CEO of Southern Company, please welcome Mr. Bill Dahlberg. (APPLAUSE)

BILL DAHLBERG: Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, let me add my thanks to each of you for being here today for what we think is an important occasion, and that is to recognize the life and accomplishments of Payne Stewart through the presentation of this award to three true legends of golf. As I sat at my seat and listened to Byron Nelson; then I saw Jack Nicklaus; then heard Arnold Palmer, I felt like I was a really 20-handicapper on the PGA TOUR. What a great job they do. Southern Company is proud to be just a small part of this. It does recognize, we think, something important. It recognizes the life and accomplishments of Payne Stewart. But I think the way it is presented and that is to present it to golfers who really do epitomize them through more than just their play, but the things they do in addition to the game is very special. Golf is a game played by individuals and it is a fierce competition, but it is more than that. It is a competition, yes, fierce, yes, it is about championships, but I think it is also about recognizing the individuals that you compete against. It is recognizing that golf does have a certain dignity and things that it upholds and we can't think of any three greater people to receive the initial award than the three that we recognize today. Southern Company more than 75 years ago now, I guess it was, had a slogan. It was created by one of the early presidents. It was to be a citizen wherever we served. We created that slogan when we went to new communities and we took our business there. We said we will be more than just a business enterprise there. We would go there and we would be part of the community. We would have our people there and they would be fully engaged with all the activities and try to make each community a little bit better when we left than when we got there. Well, if you think about the honorees today, they do much of the same thing. They are more than just being part of the community of golf on the golf course. They carry much more than that with them. They are truly what we try to be, citizens wherever we serve. As great ambassadors of the game, they truly are citizens wherever they serve, and they represent golf very, very well and we are honored to just be part of the ceremony today that recognizes their accomplishments. Thank you very much. (APPLAUSE)

MIKE TIRICO: Two more very special moments before we conclude the program and I'd like to once again introduce Commissioner Finchem. :

COMMISSIONER FINCHEM: Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to actually present these awards and just make one brief comment that what we have heard today is a reaffirmation of the purpose of the award - Tom Lehman said at that very moving ceremony in Houston last year this: We would not forget Payne and our challenge to do that and our reaction to the comments of Byron and Jack and Arnold is that we will now rededicate ourselves in the name of Payne to continue the standards that they have set. Let me first start by giving an award, the actual trophy to Byron Nelson. (APPLAUSE) Of course give Jack's when we see him, but I have one for Arnold Palmer. Finally we thought it would be appropriate to have a replica of the trophy made for Tracey Stewart. We'd like to ask Tracey if she would like to make some concluding remarks. Tracey Stewart. (APPLAUSE)

TRACEY STEWART: Thank you. My family and I are truly honored for Payne to be memorialized this way. He loved the PGA TOUR, the game of golf, and his golfing family. He was committed to golf and believed that he had a responsibility to present himself as a professional and represent his score with dignity and respect. Payne's dress style of knickers and tamo shanter caps was a way for him to uphold his commitment to the traditions of the game of golf. He was dedicated to observing golf etiquette because he believed the selfimposed respect for the rules and honor of the game were what made golf unique. At the heart of his commitment was sportsmanship. He wanted to win every time he teed it up, but it was far more important to him that he treat his fellow competitors with respect. I believe memorializing Payne with this award is a fitting tribute to him because he sought to embody the principles this award seeks to honor. Payne learned from and valued the ideals and traditions set forth by the three legends of the game receiving this award today. Congratulations, Byron Nelson, Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus. Payne treasured the friendships he shared and he had a tremendous amount of respect for these three men. He greatly admired their achievements and contributions to golf. But more importantly, he valued their integrity and their leadership qualities. These three great champions were role models to Payne as well as countless others. They have set the standard by which all players and future generations of golfers should be judged. What a tremendous honor for our family to know that Byron, Arnold and Jack are recipients of the Payne Stewart Award. Payne would truly be proud. I would like to thank Tim Finchem and the PGA TOUR Policy Board for establishing this award which honors Payne in such a meaningful and permanent way. My thanks also to the Southern Company for establishing the grants associated with this award. Your support will help fund the charities of the Payne Stewart Family Foundation and in conjunction with the First Tee Program the Payne Stewart Memorial Sports Complex at Kids Across America in Branson, Missouri. I would also like to take this opportunity to offer my gratitude to my PGA TOUR friends. The ongoing love and support that you have shared for Chelsea, Aaron and me has been heart-warming and it continues to sustain us. We miss being with you all. In closing, Payne would hope that we should be encouraged not only to play the game of golf with an attitude of sportsmanship, but also to lead our lives with an equal concern for the dignity, honor and respect of others. Thank you. (APPLAUSE)

MIKE TIRICO: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you by your attendance for echoing what many of the dignitaries said here today and your support for the traditions of the game and the memory of Payne Stewart. The competition of course starts tomorrow and continues through the weekend. We sincerely thank you for being here for truly a special part of THE TOUR Championship week. Enjoy the rest of the day.