Payne Stewart – My Favorite Golfer

In 1966, I first learned how to play golf as a kid at the Quito, Ecuador golf course. I fell in love with the game and have been playing ever since. My late younger brother DJ and I would play every chance we got and he almost surpassed me in skill during our adult lives. My best round was a 74. I barely beat my brother who shot his best at 76. We were good. These days, I don't play very much but practice hitting a ball in my yard and at the local driving range.

The U.S. Open begins this week at the legendary Pinehurst #2 golf course in North Carolina, which is the most difficult in the world. In 1999, Payne Stewart beat Phil Mickelson in a sudden death challenge at this site and he will always be immortalized as he posed with his leg kicked back and his right arm extended while clutching his winning ball. Today, I saw a picture of Payne's daughter posing the same posture as her famous dad who died in a plane crash the year he won. I tear up when I think of what her dad meant to me.

One Saturday during the 1995 Shell Houston Open, I brought a friend, Keith, to watch the tournament and to possibly obtain Payne Stewart's autograph since he was the Tiger Woods of that time. Payne was a devout christian who brought back into golfing fashion the colorful knickers and tam o'shanter hats of old to the game. He was always a classy guy and not like the arrogant stuffy guys of today's professional tour.

Keith and I were following Payne's group, eager to get an autograph on my favorite golf hat – a baseball cap, which already had at least six other famous signatures of past major winners on it. After hitting a beautiful tee shot down a fairway, he began walking with a bunch of us tailing him when I noticed he was signing my friend's tournament brochure ahead of me. Keith yelled back at me and said “Hurry Cal, he'll sign your hat.” As Payne was still walking he turned around and saw me waving my hat and picked me out of the crowd saying, “Well, do you want me to sign it?” I tore through the crowd and he stopped to autograph my hat. He asked me where to sign it so I told him on the brim. Payne signed it with a beautiful smile and commented on the logo which had The United States of Texas with the lone star at the center. He said “cool hat”, then left to the next hole. He won the tournament the next day.

Payne died on October 25, 1999 in a plane crash which devastated the golf world.

I can't think of another professional player that would have stopped in mid-tournament to say those kind words to me...much less sign my hat. So I would like to say to Payne today, Hip Hip Hooray, Hip Hip Hooray, Hip Hip Hooray to my favorite golfer! He is in heaven watching the show this weekend where he made the most important putt of his life. He went to SMU in Dallas but was born in Missouri. We Texans still honor him as one of our own. I personally will never forget him.

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