Payne Stewart

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Payne Stewart on the cover of the 2001 paperback edition of the authorised biography by Tracey Stewart with Ken Abraham. He is holding the U.S. Open trophy.

Payne Stewart (January 30, 1957 – October 25, 1999), born William Payne Stewart, was an American golfer who won three Majors in his career, the last of which occurred only months before he died in a airplane accident at the age of 42.

Stewart was born in Springfield, Missouri, and attended Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, where he was a member of Phi Gamma Delta. He was always popular with fans, especially for his clothing, and was reputed to have the biggest wardrobe of all professional golfers. He was a continual target for photographers because of his tam o'shanter caps and patterned trousers, which were a combination of plus fours and knickerbockers, a throwback to the once-commonplace golfing "uniform".

[edit] Golfing life

Stewart failed to earn a PGA Tour card at Qualifying School in his graduation year, so he played on the Asian Tour for a couple of years, winning twice. He finally earned his PGA Tour card in 1982 and won his first event on the tour at that year's Quad Cities Open. He won eleven Tour events, including the 1989 PGA Championship and the U.S. Open in 1991 and 1999. He was a two-time winner of the Hassan II Trophy in Morocco.

Stewart represented the United States on five Ryder Cup teams (1987, 1989, 1991, 1993, 1999) and was known for his patriotic passion for the event. He was disappointed to miss out in 1995 and 1997 when he failed to qualify automatically and wasn't chosen as a captain's pick. Stewart also played for the U.S. on three World Cup teams.

Just before his death, Stewart was involved in racially charged comments towards Asians. During a rain delay on October 21, 1999 at the National Car Rental Classic in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, Stewart was reported to have squinted his eyes, and said in a Chinese accent: “I just want Peter Alliss to know that all of us American golfers on the Ryder Cup Team -- we are Chinese, too. Thank you very much.”

This was a response to a remark that Peter Alliss, who covers sports for ABC in Europe, had made earlier that day to the Daily Telegraph, which quoted him as saying, “Americans might as well be Chinese. In their eyes, everything European is rubbish. Everything, everything, everything is crap.”[1]

[edit] Death

On October 25, 1999, a month after the American team rallied to win the 1999 Ryder Cup in Brookline, Massachusetts, Stewart was killed while travelling on a Lear Jet from Orlando to Texas. National Transportation Safety Board investigators later concluded that the plane suffered a gradual loss of cabin pressure early in the flight and that all on board died of hypoxia, lack of oxygen. The plane, apparently still on autopilot, was observed by Air National Guard F-16 fighter aircraft of several states. Other than frost on the plane's windows, the military pilots saw nothing amiss but were unable to directly observe the Learjet's pilot or copilot, who did not respond to repeated radio calls. It is likely that the pilots and occupants already had lost consciousness. There was some speculation that military jets were prepared to shoot down the Lear if it threatened to crash in a heavily populated area. But officials at the Pentagon strongly denied that possibility.

Shooting down the plane "was never an option," Air Force spokesman Capt. Joe Della Vedova said. "I don't know where that came from."

Instead, according to an Air Force timeline, a series of military planes provided an emergency escort to the stricken Lear, beginning with a pair of F-16 Falcons from the Air National Guard at Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla., about 20 minutes after ground controllers lost contact. The plane continued flying until it ran out of fuel and crashed into a field around Mina, a town ten miles west of Aberdeen, South Dakota after an uncontrolled descent. Among the five other people aboard the plane was Bruce Borland, a highly-regarded golf architect with the Jack Nicklaus golf course design company.

The 2000 U.S. Open, held at Pebble Beach Golf Links, began with 21 of Stewart's fellow players simultaneously hitting balls into the Pacific Ocean in a golf version of the 21-gun salute.

In 2001, Stewart was posthumously inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame.

On June 8, 2005, a Florida state court jury in Orlando found that Learjet was not liable for the deaths of Stewart and his agent Robert Fraley, who had also been aboard the plane.

The 2005 U.S. Open marked the first return of the event to Pinehurst No. 2 since Stewart won on the famous North Carolina course in 1999. The weekend was filled with remembrances of and tributes to Payne. A bronze statue depicting his one-legged, fist-extended celebratory reaction following his tournament-clinching putt over Phil Mickelson was later unveiled near the 18th green.

Stewart was survived by his widow, Tracey, a native of Rockhampton, Australia, daughter Chelsea, and son Aaron.

[edit] PGA Tour wins (11)

• 1982 (1) Miller High Life QCO
• 1983 (1) Walt Disney World Golf Classic
• 1987 (1) Hertz Bay Hill Classic
• 1989 (2) MCI Heritage Golf Classic, PGA Championship
• 1990 (2) MCI Heritage Golf Classic, GTE Byron Nelson Golf Classic
• 1991 (1) U.S. Open
• 1995 (1) Shell Houston Open
• 1999 (2) AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, U.S. Open

Major championships are shown in bold.

[edit] Other wins (4)

• 1982 Coolangatta-Tweed Heads Classic (Australia)
• 1991 Skins Game
• 1992 Skins Game
• 1993 Skins Game

this list is probably incomplete

[edit] Results in major championships

DNP = Did not play
CUT = missed the half way cut
"T" indicates a tie for a place.
Green background for wins. Yellow background for top-10.

[edit] See also

• Golfers with most PGA Tour wins

[edit] References

• Aircraft Accident Brief of accident number DCA00MA005 from the National Transportation Safety Board.

[edit] External links

• A biography written when he was inducted into the Hall of Fame
• Payne Stewart at Golf Stars Online Directory of interviews, websites and feature articles with or about him.