PGA notes Faxon’s charity work

Brad Faxon won the biggest award of his career without being able to hit a golf shot.

Faxon, recovering from Sept. 13 knee surgery that ended his season, was honored Wednesday at the Tour Championship with the Payne Stewart Award, given to players who show respect for golf’s traditions by the way they handle themselves and their charity work.

Stewart, who died in a plane crash in 1999, four months after winning his second U.S. Open, was one of the most recognizable figures on the Tour.

“I don’t think there can be a greater honor for any golfer, what they can do off the golf course,” Faxon said.

Turning to Stewart’s daughter, Chelsea, now a sophomore at Clemson, he said, “There’s no way any player can have anything bestowed on them better than what your dad leads us all on still today, to try to represent the tour the way he did.”

Faxon and Billy Andrade run the CVS Charity Classic, a two-day event in Rhode Island that has raised more than $6 million for children’s charities in New England.

Tourney’s status up in air

The PGA Tour event in New Orleans is on the schedule for next year, but damage from Hurricane Katrina has left it unclear where it will be played.

The Zurich Classic of New Orleans is in the same spot on the 2006 schedule, April 27-30, two weeks after the Masters. It was moved last year to the TPC at Louisiana, one of dozens of golf courses ravaged by Katrina.