Payne Stewart Was Remembered Again at Pebble Beach

By
at Internationaled.org

Published: June 26, 2010

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At the 2000 United States Open at Pebble Beach, the defending champion of the national championship could not defend his title.

Payne Stewart had won the 1999 U.S. Open at Pinehurst in a dramatic fashion, draining a 15-foot putt on the final hole to edge Phil Mickelson by a stroke.

Stewart died in a plane crash a little more than four months later, on October 25.

The golf community decided to use the 2000 U.S. Open as a chance to pay tribute to Payne, as he was the defending champion of the tournament.

A "21-Ball Salute" ceremony was held on the 18th fairway on Wednesday that week, a day before play began. Twenty-one golf pros teed up balls along the edge of No. 18, and on command, they all splashed them in the Pacific at the same time. A second group did the same thing.

A small ceremony was held, and several of Payne’s friends spoke. One of those was perhaps his closest friend on tour, Paul Azinger.

"If golf was art, then Payne was the color," Azinger said, choking back tears.

"The challenge is not to forget Payne. And not just Payne the golfer, but Payne the person."

It would be 10 more years before the open returned to Pebble Beach: The 2010 Open last week, won by Graeme McDowell.

Although Stewart never won the Open at Pebble Beach, it is hard not to think back to that ceremony in 2000 and think of him here. Stewart, without ever winning at Pebble Beach, has become part of its history.

Payne won two U.S. Opens. The first was at Hazeltine, outside of Minneapolis, in 1991, the second at Pinehurst.

In 2005, Pinehurst hosted the U.S. Open, and that too was a time to remember the golfing legend who was taken much too early. Pinehurst will again host the Open in 2014, and no doubt our thoughts will again return to the gentleman who wore the knickers.

Hazeltine, the site of Payne’s first Open title, is now on the PGA...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Golf

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