Payne Stewart Award: Honoring one of golf's true fashion icons

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"Hell, we all just looked the same," Payne Stewart told a British reporter. "The easiest way to stand out in a crowd was to dress differently."

Editor's Note: The Payne Stewart Award is named for the 11-time winner on the PGA TOUR who died the week of the TOUR Championship by Coca-Cola in 1999. The award was created by the PGA TOUR policy board to perpetuate Stewart's memory and is presented annually at the TOUR Championship to a player sharing Stewart's many admirable traits. Each week leading up to the announcement of this year's winner, PGATOUR.COM will select one of Stewart's qualities and highlight how those same qualities were shared by some of the previous winners of the Payne Stewart Award (click here for complete coverage).

"Clothes make the man"

Thank you, Mark Twain, for that wonderful quote. Surely some version of that quote has been used many times when writing a story about Payne Stewart. Usually, the author will recast the quote to read something like, "Clothes may make the man, but Payne Stewart was much more than colorful outfits."

Yes, that is very true. Payne Stewart had ample supplies of substance to go along with unlimited amounts of style. But it was his style that made him truly stand apart from the rest. So in this case, clothes made the man unforgettable.

"Hell, we all just looked the same," Payne Stewart told a British reporter when looking at all his fellow playing pros back in 1982. His father had given him some sage advice about what to do next. "The easiest way to stand out in a crowd was to dress differently," he said. And polo shirts and pants were no way to go through life on the TOUR.

He remembered Rodger Davis and the plus-two trousers he liked to wear. "I thought he looked different and neat," Stewart explained. But he decided to crank up the volume just a tad. He bought several pairs of the baggier plus-fours (a.k.a. knickers) and topped off the look with a peaked cap. Soon after debuting his new look, Stewart won his first PGA TOUR event, the 1982 Quad Cities Open.

Style meets substance

He would eventually sign an innovative clothing deal with the NFL to wear the team colors of the local NFL franchise (i.e. Honolulu blue for the Lions when he was playing Oakland Hills or the Dolphins' aqua and orange when playing Doral).

Thanks to a pretty mean game to go with his natty wardrobe, Payne Stewart became a familiar brand to even non-golf fans. Once when showing his Florida mansion to Michael Jackson, the King of Pop had no clue who his tour guide was. Then his real estate agent told him that this was the golfer with the funny clothes, and Jackson, someone who can relate to interesting clothing selections, immediately understood.

One unpredicted side effect of Payne's distinctive look was that all he had to do to avoid autograph seekers at shopping malls and grocery stores was to put on a pair of jeans, a T-shirt and a ball cap, and he was virtually unrecognizable.

Superman meet Clark Kent

Today, several emerging stars are carving out their own fashion niches from fairway to greens. American hotshot Rickie Fowler has made flat-billed Puma caps popular among 12-year-olds, not to mention what he's done to orange pants sales at pro shops around the globe. TOUR veteran John Daly's screaming trouser designs fit his personality like a snug golf glove (think M.C. Hammer's parachute pants or the always forgettable era of Jamz in the late 1980s). Ian Poulter's look might be the closest to Payne Stewart's, which is exactly how Poulter planned it; Poulter dedicated his golf clothing line to the late American icon.

But when it comes to golf icons not named Payne Stewart, nobody has worn the title of "Best Dressed" better than the Black Knight himself, Gary Player -- one of the past winners of the Payne Stewart Award. One click to hiswebsite will tell you everything you need to know about Branding 101 (Black Knight wine, anyone?).

Player was a winner to be sure. His career Grand Slam is quite a headline on any resume. But it was the all-black wardrobe - worn impeccably by a South African who also was a TOUR trendsetter for his health and fitness regimen - which set him apart from the field. He may have stood only 5'7" and weighed in at 150 pounds, but this guy was Darth Vader to his competitors long before George Lucas introduced that particular black-clad bad guy. Player won the Payne Stewart Award in 2006 for the way he carried himself -- and looked good doing it -- on and off the course.

If you don't mention the word "swashbuckler" when you write about Arnold Palmer, well, you missed a golden opportunity to use the word "swashbuckler." He ushered in golf on television not just because he plundered the countryside of its championships, but because of the stylish way he did it. One of three legends to win the inaugural Payne Stewart Award in 2000, Palmer cut a path for players such as Player, Nicklaus, Watson, etc.

Of course, now it's Stewart who is considered the trailblazer of golf fashion, as popular for the way he looked winning as for winning itself. Nothing wrong with that. This man made his clothes a star.