Profiling Professional Golfer, Payne Stewart
Payne Stewart was born in Missouri in 1957 and died in a plane crash in 1999. He was only 42 years old when he died. During his career, he won the U.S. Open in 1991 & 1999. He won the PGA Championship in 1989. He was a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame and he was a member of the U.S. Ryder Cup team for five years (1987, 1989, 1991, 1993, 1999). In this profile, I will discuss how Payne Stewart, Professional Golfer, started out on the PGA Tour, detailing some of the experiences that shaped him; his struggles with making a living while playing the game, his professional accomplishments, personal losses and magnificent triumphs.
In June 1999, Payne Stewart was at the top of his game; during the U.S. Open at Pinehurst No. 2. Mr. Stewart’s wife, Tracey, described her husband’s life-long love of the game, his natural athletic ability, and the mentoring and coaching he received from his father beginning at the age of four. He had a lot of amateur success and played college golf at Southern Methodist University in Texas. His apparent lack of interest in academics spanned from elementary school through college; only applying himself only when it would allow him to further pursue his dream of a career as a professional golfer.
Even with his immense talent, Steward originally struggled to qualify for his PGA Tour Card and reluctantly decided to accept a place on an overseas amateur golf tour, where he would eventually meet some of the best friends of his life; including his future wife. His wife, Tracey shared some of Payne’s anecdotes of when he was touring in Asia with his American teammates; recounts how she and Payne first met and fell in love “at first sight”, how she followed the tour with him for weeks at a time and how Payne proposed at a crowded reception in Singapore. He turned pro in 1979 and went overseas to play on the Asian golf tour. He returned to America after two years and joined the U.S....
