Q&A: Womack of Southern Company

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Editor's note: Following is the text of a recent PGA TOUR NETWORK: interview with Chris Womack, Executive Vice President of Southern Company.

PGA TOUR NETWORK: Chris, thanks for coming by the show. What's your week been like?

WOMACK: It's been a fantastic week. The four days of the tournament are fantastic. We all look forward to it. But for us in Atlanta at the Southern Company we look forward to the entire week because there are a whole series of events. And just having the opportunity to showcase East Lake and what it is, the golf course, the community and the City of Atlanta and the state of Georgia is a great opportunity for us. We look forward to it every year. We've got a great course in great condition. It's nice and hot so what more can you ask for if you're in the utility business.

PGA TOUR NETWORK: That's a great point. I got a chance to talk to Tom Lehman, the recipient of the Payne Stewart Award. Super guy.

WOMACK: How fantastic is that? As we talk about the things that happen over the course of the week one thing that I think is the crowning jewel of this event is the awarding of the Payne Stewart Award. On Tuesday night, the Commissioner and David Ratcliff, our chairman and CEO, and others made the presentation to Tom Lehman. And that announcement I think has become -- some people actually look forward to it -- Kenny Perry last year and you go back to Brad Faxon, Tom Watson, Nick Price. It's just a whole series of golfers who when you look at them and their golf game and what they've done outside of golf kind of says this is what golf is all about. From integrity, leadership, to giving back -- just the whole thing that makes golf what it is today, the integrity of it is so very very good, so very important. And people love it, they really love it. You say for us, the Southern Company, why do you do that? There are three things we call Southern style - - superior performance, unquestionable trust and total commitment. We think those things perfectly line up with things that made golf what it is for so many years. So we get excited about it. The last thing I'll say about the Payne Stewart Award: You get grown men when they get this award, they are so passionate, so enthusiastic, so emotional. It's like your heartstrings start playing a symphony. It's like you got the Payne Stewart Performer Award sitting over here. You got Dustin Johnson, Nick Watney, Charley Hoffman, Ryan Palmer, all those guys sitting there watching this saying, I want the Payne Stewart Award one day. I don't think it gets much better than that.

PGA TOUR NETWORK: I completely agree. This tournament is unique, and Brian will certainly over the next four days talk quite a bit about it in that the companies that are involved in this tournament are based here. The other tournaments have great title sponsorship, but it's not local title sponsorship.

WOMACK: This is hometown juice. We're not just here to push a product, that's important to us, but we're also here to push this community. Also I'm also biased because I'm on the East Lake Foundation Board, and so you look at this golf venue and where it was 20 to 30 years ago and where it is today, but you also just ride around this property and ride around this neighborhood and you see what's happening in a place that didn't have a grocery store, didn't have a post office and you look at the development that's going on around and you feel real good about it. So using golf as a vehicle not only for the great sport that it is but for the change in people's lives. About a 4-iron to the left is the Drew Charter School where we have given kids the opportunity to learn in a very nurturing environment but also convince these kids that I want to be all that I can be, I'm committed to graduating. When you look at so many schools around the country where unfortunately 20-30 percent of the kids are dropping out. Every kid that comes through Drew Charter School progresses and we're tracking them all through college. It's good stuff that's doable and it can be done.

PGA TOUR NETWORK: As a golf fan, how much fun is it to have the access that you do to these guys and find out what they're like.

WOMACK: It's a strange thing, to be an adult man and get so excited to hang around and walk with a Nick Watney. You start to check yourself. Is everything OK? Just to make sure everything is wound up right. It doesn't get cooler than this. I mean, the Payne Stewart Award, we have about eight or 10 of the golfers there at that event. You see guys running around wanting to rub shoulders and say Dustin, will you wave at me? Just anything. It's like hanging out with Reggie Jackson. I'm probably a bigger baseball fan than I am of golf. I think after 1978 after the Yankees won the '77 World Series, I was down at spring training and Reggie (Jackson) let me wear his World Series ring. It doesn't get any bigger than that.

PGA TOUR NETWORK: Chris, we appreciate your time and all of your support of the game.

WOMACK: My pleasure. Thanks to you guys for doing this. I'll be out here all week. You cannot be in town and not come out here.