Payne Stewart
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| Payne Stewart | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Full name | William Payne Stewart |
| Born | January 30, 1957 Springfield, Missouri |
| Died | October 25, 1999 (aged 42) Mina, South Dakota |
| Nationality |  United States |
| Career | |
| College | Southern Methodist University |
| Turned professional | 1982 |
| Former tour(s) | PGA Tour |
| Professional wins | 24 |
| Number of wins by tour | |
| PGA Tour | 11 |
| Other | 13 |
| Best results in Major Championships (Wins: 3) |
|
| The Masters | T8: 1986 |
| U.S. Open | Won 1991, 1999 |
| Open Championship | 2nd/T2: 1985, 1990 |
| PGA Championship | Won 1989 |
| Achievements and awards | |
| World Golf Hall of Fame | 2001 (member page) |
| Byron Nelson Award | 1989 |
William Payne Stewart (January 30, 1957 – October 25, 1999) was an American professional golfer who won three majors in his career, the last of which occurred only months before he died in an 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 favorite of photographers because of his ivy caps and patterned trousers, which were a cross between plus fours and knickerbockers, a throwback to the once-commonplace golfing "uniform".
Contents |
[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. This was the most special win to him because it was the only time his father, a struggling alcoholic during Stewart's childhood, saw him win.[citation needed] 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. At the time of his death he was ranked in the top-10 of the Official World Golf Rankings - he had been ranked in the top-10 for almost 250 weeks from 1986 to 1993 and again in 1999.[1] At a time of international domination of the golf scene in the late 1980s and early 1990s, he was often the highest ranked American player.
Stewart represented the United States on five Ryder Cup teams (1987, 1989, 1991, 1993 and 1999) and was known for his patriotic passion for the event, once saying of his European opponents, "On paper, they should be caddying for us."[2] 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.
[edit] Death
On October 25, 1999, a month after the American team rallied to win the 1999 Ryder Cup in Brookline, Massachusetts, and four months after his U.S. Open victory at Pinehurst No. 2, Stewart was killed in the depressurization of a Learjet flying from Orlando to Dallas, Texas for the year-ending tournament, The Tour Championship, held at Champions Golf Club in Houston that year. Stewart was planning to stop off in Dallas to discuss building a new home course for the SMU golf program.[3] The last communication received from the pilots was at 9:27 AM EDT, and the plane made a right turn at 9:30 AM EDT that was probably the result of human input. At 9:33 AM EDT the pilots did not respond to a call to change radio frequencies, and there was no further contact from the plane. The plane, apparently still on autopilot and angled off-course, was observed by several U.S. Air Force and Air National Guard F-16 Fighting Falcon fighter aircraft[4] as it continued its flight over the southern and midwestern United States. The military pilots observed frost or condensation on the windshield (consistent with loss of cabin pressure) which obscured the cockpit, and no motion was visible through the small patch of windshield that was clear.
National Transportation Safety Board investigators concluded that the plane suffered a loss of cabin pressure and that all on board died of hypoxia. A delay of only a few seconds in donning oxygen masks, coupled with cognitive and motor skill impairment, could have been enough to result in the pilots' incapacitation. The NTSB report showed that the plane had several instances of maintenance work related to cabin pressure in the months leading up to the accident. The NTSB was unable to determine whether they stemmed from a common problem - replacements and repairs were documented, but not the pilot discrepancy reports that prompted them or the frequency of such reports. The report gently chides Sunjet Aviation for the possibility that this would have made the problem harder to identify, track, and resolve; as well as the fact that in at least one instance the plane was flown with an unauthorized maintenance deferral for cabin pressure problems.
There was some speculation that military jets were prepared to shoot down the Lear if it threatened to crash in a heavily populated area. 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."[citation needed]
Instead, according to an Air Force timeline, a series of military planes provided an emergency escort to the stricken Lear, beginning with an F-16 from Eglin Air Force Base, about an hour and twenty minutes (9:33 EDT to 9:52 CDT - see NTSB report on the crash) 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 (16 km) west of Aberdeen, South Dakota after an uncontrolled descent. The five other people aboard the plane included Stewart's agents Robert Fraley and Van Ardan, and pilots Michael Kling and Stephanie Bellegarrigue, along with Bruce Borland, a highly-regarded golf architect with the Jack Nicklaus golf course design company.
At the time of his death, Stewart had won $12,673,193 in career earnings.
At that year's Tour Championship, Stewart's good friend Stuart Appleby organized a tribute to his friend. With the widow's permission, he wore one of Payne's own signature outfits for the final round of the tournament, and most of the rest of the golfers in the field wore "short pants" that day as well.[5]
One year after Stewart's death, his widow Tracey and their two children, as well as the family of Stewart's agent Robert Fraley who also died on that flight, brought a lawsuit seeking $200,000,000 in damages against the Learjet's operator SunJet Aviation Inc and owner JetShares One Inc. The case was brought to trial in Federal Court in Orlando, Florida where in June 2005 jurors acquitted the defendants of responsibility for the crash. In their verdict, the jurors also found that the plane's manufacturer, Learjet, had no liability in the deaths of Stewart and Fraley due to negligence in the design or manufacture of the plane.
The segment of Interstate 44 passing through Springfield, Missouri was designated the Payne Stewart Memorial Highway in his memory. He also has a street in Fullerton, California named after him. There is also a "Payne Stewart Drive" in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada named after him, leading into a golf course designed by Arnold Palmer.
The communities of Mina and Aberdeen created their own memorial. Jon Hoffman, owner of the property where the plane crashed, contacted Stewart's widow Tracey and several family members of other crash victims; all agreed that the memorial would be a rock pulled from the crash site, engraved with the victims' names and a Bible passage. Hoffman fenced in about an acre (4,000 m²) of the property surrounding the memorial.[3]
In 2000, the PGA Tour established the Payne Stewart Award, given each year to a player who shows respect for the traditions of the game, commitment to uphold the game's heritage of charitable support and professional and meticulous presentation of himself and the sport through his dress and conduct.[6]
In tribute to Stewart, as well as his southwestern Missouri roots, the Payne Stewart Golf Club was opened in in Branson, Missouri in June 2009 with the approval of Stewart's wife, Tracey.[citation needed] Ground-breaking on the $31 million layout took place on July 24, 2006. The 7,319 yard 18-hole course was designed by Bobby Clampett and Chuck Smith. Each hole on the course is named for some aspect or notable moment in Stewart's life. For example, the fifth hole, named "Road Hole", recounts the incredible par Stewart made in the first round of the 1990 Open Championship at Old Course at St Andrews when he was forced to knock his third shot against the wall behind the green at the Old Course's treacherous 17th. His ball finished just on the back fringe from where he chipped in.
[edit] Professional wins (24)
[edit] PGA Tour wins (11)
|
| No. | Date | Tournament | Winning Score | Margin of Victory | Runner(s)-up |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jul 18, 1982 | Miller High Life QCO | -12 (68-66-65-69=268) | 2 strokes | Tom Kite |
| 2 | Oct 23, 1983 | Walt Disney World Golf Classic | -19 (69-64-69-67=269) | 2 strokes |  Nick Faldo, Mark McCumber |
| 3 | Mar 15, 1987 | Hertz Bay Hill Classic | -24 (69-67-63-65=264) | 3 strokes |  David Frost |
| 4 | Apr 16, 1989 | MCI Heritage Golf Classic | -16 (65-67-67-69=268) | 5 strokes | Kenny Perry |
| 5 | Aug 13, 1989 | PGA Championship | -12 (74-66-69-67=276) | 1 stroke | Andy Bean, Mike Reid, Curtis Strange |
| 6 | Apr 15, 1990 | MCI Heritage Golf Classic | -8 (70-69-66-71=276) | Playoff | Steve Jones, Larry Mize |
| 7 | May 6, 1990 | GTE Byron Nelson Golf Classic* | -8 (67-68-67=202) | 2 strokes | Lanny Wadkins |
| 8 | Jun 17, 1991 | U.S. Open | -6 (67-70-73-72=282) | Playoff | Scott Simpson |
| 9 | Apr 30, 1995 | Shell Houston Open | -12 (73-65-70-68=276) | Playoff | Scott Hoch |
| 10 | Feb 7, 1999 | AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am* | -10 (69-64-73=206) | 1 stroke | Frank Lickliter II |
| 11 | Jun 20, 1999 | U.S. Open | -1 (68-69-72-70=279) | 1 stroke | Phil Mickelson |
*Note 1: The 1990 GTE Byron Nelson Golf Classic was reduced to 54 holes due to inclement weather
*Note 2: The 1999 AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am was reduced to 54 holes due to inclement weather
[edit] Other wins (13)
this list is probably incomplete
- 1981 Indian Open, Indonesia Open (Asian Tour)
- 1982 Magnolia State Classic
- 1982 Coolangatta-Tweed Heads Classic (Australia)
- 1985 Jun Classic (Japan Golf Tour, tie with Kazushige Kono and Masahiro Kuramoto)
- 1987 Fred Meyer Challenge (with Isao Aoki)
- 1991 Heineken Dutch Open (European Tour), Skins Game
- 1992 Skins Game, Hassan II Trophy
- 1993 Skins Game, Hassan II Trophy
- 1996 Wendy's 3-Tour Challenge (with Fred Couples and Davis Love III)
[edit] Major championships
[edit] Wins (3)
| Year | Championship | 54 Holes | Winning Score | Margin | Runner(s)-up |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1989 | PGA Championship | 6 shot deficit | -12 (74-66-69-67=276) | 1 stroke | Andy Bean, Mike Reid, Curtis Strange |
| 1991 | U.S. Open | Tied for lead | -6 (67-70-73-72=282) | Playoff1 | Scott Simpson |
| 1999 | U.S. Open (2) | 1 shot lead | -1 (68-69-72-70=279) | 1 stroke | Phil Mickelson |
1Defeated Scott Simpson 75-77 in an 18-hole playoff.
[edit] Results timeline
| Tournament | 1981 | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 | 1985 | 1986 | 1987 | 1988 | 1989 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Masters | DNP | DNP | T32 | T21 | T25 | T8 | T42 | T25 | T24 |
| U.S. Open | DNP | DNP | DNP | CUT | T5 | T6 | CUT | T10 | T13 |
| The Open Championship | T58 | DNP | DNP | CUT | 2 | T35 | T4 | T7 | T8 |
| PGA Championship | DNP | CUT | CUT | CUT | T12 | T5 | T24 | T9 | 1 |
| Tournament | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Masters | T36 | DNP | CUT | T9 | CUT | T41 | CUT | DNP | DNP | T52 |
| U.S. Open | CUT | 1 | T51 | 2 | CUT | T21 | T27 | T28 | 2 | 1 |
| The Open Championship | T2 | T32 | T34 | 12 | CUT | T11 | T45 | 59 | T44 | T30 |
| PGA Championship | T8 | T13 | T69 | T44 | T66 | T13 | T69 | T29 | CUT | T57 |
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] Trivia
Stewart appeared on episode number 169/7.18 of the hit sitcom Home Improvement titled "Futile Attraction", it aired on March 10, 1998 and featured Stewart as himself.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ 69 Players Who Have Reached The Top-10 In World Ranking
- ^ The Gigantic Book of Golf Quotations, ed. Jim Apfelbaum. 2007.
- ^ a b Merrill, Elizabeth (2009-06-16). "In his father's footsteps". Outside the Lines. ESPN.com. http://sports.espn.go.com/golf/usopen09/news/story?id=4260509. Retrieved on 2009-06-16.
- ^ http://www.ntsb.gov/Publictn/2000/AAB0001.pdf
- ^ A special tribute to Stewart on final day
- ^ New Payne Stewart award announced
- Aircraft Accident Brief of accident number DCA00MA005 from the National Transportation Safety Board.
- Episode 7.18 - Futile Attraction
- Jurors clear Learjet in Lawsuit
[edit] External links
- A biography written when he was inducted into the Hall of Fame
- A short biography on Payne Stewart including unique photographs and documents
- Results and stats on PGA Tour's official site
- Payne Stewart at Find a Grave
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