Payne Stewart 1999 US Open Champion

Sports Writer Derek Clements looks back 15 years to the 1999 US Open at Pinehurst won by Payne Stewart and his legacy following his untimely death that year.

IT IS difficult to believe that 15 years have passed since Payne Stewart holed a snaking 15-foot putt on the final green to win the US Open at Pinehurst and deny Phil Mickelson.

Three months later, he was showing his fellow Americans what sportsmanship was all about as he turned on a partisan crowd at Brookline who were verbally abusing Colin Montgomerie, his opponent in the singles, in the most notorious of all Ryder Cup matches.

It is often forgotten that Stewart, one of the most intense competitors and a man who hated to lose, conceded a long putt, and the match, to Montgomerie in their singles encounter at Brookline. Yes, the US had already won the Ryder Cup, but Stewart was bitterly upset at the way the fans were treating Monty. It was an incredible act of sportsmanship, one that turned out to be his epitaph.

A month later, he was dead.

On October 25, 1999, Stewart was flying from Orlando to Dallas for the year-ending Tour Championship. The last communication received from the pilots was at 9.27am EDT, and the plane made a right turn three minutes later.

At 9.33am, the pilots failed to respond to a call to change radio frequencies, and there was no further. Still on autopilot, it was observed by several US Air Force fighter jets 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.

It eventually ran out of fuel and crashed in a field near Mina, South Dakota, but Stewart and the other five people on board had all died long before that after a loss of cabin pressure.

At the time of his death Stewart had won $12,673,193 in career earnings. He won more than $2m during the 1999 season, and finished seventh on the year's money list.

At that week's Tour Championship, Stewart's friend, Stuart Appleby, wore one of Payne's signature outfits for the final round of the tournament on Sunday, and most of the rest of the golfers in the field wore "short pants" that day as well.

At the 2000 US Open at Pebble Beach, most of the players lined the 18th fairway on the eve of the tournament and drove golf balls into the Pacific Ocean in memory of Stewart.

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 the flight, brought a lawsuit against Learjet, flight operator SunJet Aviation, and plane owner JetShares One Inc. They alleged that a cracked adapter resulted in an airflow valve detaching from the frame, causing a fatal loss of cabin pressure. They also claimed that the plane was severely out of maintenance due to negligence by SunJet.

In April 2000, however, as part of a federal criminal investigation, the FBI raided SunJet and seized its flight logbooks, effectively grounding all of its planes. The investigation was dropped in 2002, but it was too late to save SunJet; unable to legally operate, it filed for bankruptcy protection in June 2000. The case against Learjet went forward in state court in Orlando. In June 2005, jurors found that the plane's manufacturer had no liability in the deaths of Stewart and Fraley and that there was no 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 has a street in Fullerton, California, and a "Payne Stewart Drive" in British Columbia, leading into Northview golf course designed by Arnold Palmer, named after him.

The communities of Mina and nearby Aberdeen created their own memorial. Jon Hoffman, owner of the property where the plane crashed, contacted Stewart's widow 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. There is also a memorial to him at Pinehurst, a statue capturing forever the moment when he holed the putt to win in 1999.

In 2000 the PGA Tour set up the Payne Stewart award, which is presented each year to a player who shows respect for the traditions of the game, commitment to uphold its heritage of charitable support and professional and meticulous presentation of himself and the sport through his dress and conduct. It would have given him a real kick to know he was so highly thought of.

In 2009 the Payne Stewart Golf Club was opened in Branson, Missouri. The course was designed by Bobby Clampett  and Chuck Smith, and each hole on the course is named after some aspect or moment in Stewart's life. The fifth hole, named "Road Hole", recounts the par het made in the first round of the 1990 Open 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.

Had he lived, Stewart would be 57. Who's to say he wouldn't still have been knocking at the door again this year. He may be gone, but Payne Stewart is still missed every single day by people who play and love golf.

Image Credit: Flickr bradeleypjohnson (www.flickr.com/people/bradleypjohnson/)

Derek Clements is a sports journalist with a particular passion for golf with over 12 years of experience covering golf and other sports including Chief Sub-Editor on the sports desk of The Sunday Times. To contact Derek email direct via [email protected]

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