Brad Faxon shares a laugh with CVS Caremark chairman, president and CEO Tom Ryan.

Journal photo / Bob Thayer

BARRINGTON — Brad Faxon had helped present the winner's check to Nick Price — again — and David Toms, who had just made large money on short notice, and, as the fans headed down Nayatt Road toward home after the conclusion of the 11th CVS Caremark Charity Classic, he stood on the 18th green at Rhode Island Country Club and turned to look at the flag behind him.

"I made a putt from just about here to that pin position to win the New England Amateur," he said, remembering that day 29 years ago as vividly as he did the two damp, but still delightful, days that had just ended.

Faxon, like tournament co-host Billy Andrade, as well as perennial CVS participants Brett and Dana Quigley, grew up playing at RICC.

That's worth remembering, because it's a large part of what makes this annual event so special.

"Walking up the 18th fairway today, I took out my cell phone and took a picture," Faxon said. "I wanted a shot of the people in the stands around the green and the boxes lining the fairway.

"When I think about having the legends of the game — players like Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Gary Player and Lee Trevino — coming here over the years to play in the CVS on the course I grew up on, I have to pinch myself."

That's what you do when you wonder if you're dreaming.

"This is a dream come true," Brett Quigley said. "That's not a cliché. To be playing golf with David Toms and Nick Price at Rhode Island Country Club is amazing."

Price and Toms were pretty amazing yesterday, racking up birdies on four of the last five holes — Price's bid for a fifth straight on 18 slid just left of the cup — on their way to a final-round 60 and a three-stroke victory over Matt Kuchar, who had an even-more-amazing 11 birdies on his own ball Tuesday, and Laura Diaz.

It was the third time Price — a two-time winner of the PGA Championship and the 1994 British Open champion — has won the CVS, each time with a different partner. As for Toms, by missing the cut in the U.S. Open over the weekend, he wound up winning $150,000 after agreeing to be a last-minute fill-in at the CVS when heavy rains caused play at Bethpage to spill over into Monday and prevented several scheduled CVS participants from coming to Barrington.

But what's truly amazing — what qualifies as knock-your-socks-off, who-could-have-imagined, pretty-darned-close-to-downright-unbelievable — is that Faxon and Andrade, who as kids dreamed of playing on the PGA Tour, have come to host a one-of-a-kind tournament that is still going strong as it heads into its second decade.

The CVS Caremark Charity Classic is 11 years young now. Young because it never gets old.

"When we brought in the LPGA players, that added a buzz," Faxon said.

That was two years ago, when the glamorous Natalie Gulbis and 31-time LPGA Tour winner Julie Inkster played as a team. They were back again this year, along with rising star Morgan Pressel, 2009 Kraft Nabisco winner Brittany Lincicome, Helen Alfredsson and Laura Diaz, as 6 of the 10 teams were coed.

Next year, Faxon and Andrade said, they expect to invite even more women.

And there will be a next year for the CVS. And, hopefully, many more in the years after that because, despite bad weather and an even worse economic climate this year, the event continues to generate significant amounts of money for charity, with this year's tourney expected to bring the total to more than $13 million.

"We want to bring in great players and put on a nice show," Andrade said yesterday, "but the bottom line is that, in December, we're going to give a lot of money to people in need."

Andrade and Faxon have been doing that for many years now, going back to when they held their Charities for Children tournament at Wannamoisett. It's one of the reasons that, in 1999, during the week of The Masters, in Augusta, they were presented with the prestigious Charlie Bartlett Award, given by the Golf Writers Association of America to "playing professionals for their unselfish contributions to society."

It's another example, along with the caliber of players who come every year to the CVS, of, as Brett Quigley said yesterday, "how well respected Billy and Brad are."

Among the many other "contributions to society" Andrade and Faxon have made during their years on the PGA Tour is the work they've done on behalf of Button Hole, the short course and learning center in Providence that introduces inner-city kids to the game of golf.

That very well could be their fondest dream — that, following in the footsteps of a couple of kids who grew up playing at RICC, a couple of kids who learned the game at Button Hole might some day grow up to host a tournament of the caliber of the CVS Caremark Charity Classic.

jdonalds @projo.com