to Montgomerie on the last hole that day – a putt that gave Monty the win, not a tie. After his victory at Bay Hill in 1987, he posed on a Golf Digest cover with a chimpanzee named Deena hugging him from behind. “How Payne Stewart Got the Monkey Off His Back” was a best-seller and his mother’s favourite image of him. The chimp took a curious liking to Stewart. Our photographer, Steve Szurlej, remembers delivering the chimp and her trainer to the shoot and Deena fooling with the car keys in the ignition and gear shift while the car was running. One of the first things Stewart asked during my 1999 visit was, “How’s Deena doing?” I told him I had no idea. Stewart had a long memory. Stewart’s legend wouldn’t be near what it is without him being a superb player. Johnny Miller envied Stewart’s medium-high ball flight, Arnold Palmer pined for Stewart’s rhythm, and Lee Trevino, who felt that every great player had at least one weakness somewhere through the bag, made an exception for Stewart. “That kid has the whole package,” he said. To stand near Stewart on the range and watch him hit balls – to hear him hit balls because the sound of impact seemed louder than most players – was a treat. He was at his best playing hard courses, and he relished bad weather, two marks of a great player. Watching the replay of him that misty Sunday at Pinehurst in 1999, when he scissored the arms off his rain jacket to give him more freedom, reminded me of a 1989 quasi-instruction cover piece I ghosted for Stewart. It was titled “Cold, Wind and Rain.” He said that as a kid he played even when it snowed and spoke of the golf ball growing as it collected snow on the greens. He talked about dressing in layers, an obvious photo op. I assumed the first layer would be a pair of
Spandex long johns, but Stewart emerged from the changing room wearing only briefs. “Absolutely no way we’re shooting that,” I said. “But it’s the first layer,” Stewart protested. An endearing thing about him was his utter lack of self-consciousness, be it apparel, speech or his unabashed harmonica playing. Aaron, now 35, graduated from Southern Methodist University and captained the golf team. He became a marketing executive for Hilton Grand Vacations and tournament director of its namesake event on the LPGA Tour. He married and became the father of two children. Chelsea, 38, also married and is the mother of two. It’s a fun irony that one of Bill Stewart’s last bits of advice to son Payne was, “Only have two children.” Payne and Tracey did it that way and so have their kids – so far, anyway. Tracey never remarried but, with Chelsea and Aaron, appears for the annual presentation of the Payne Stewart Award presented by the PGA Tour. In a beautiful documentary on Stewart titled “Payne,” Tracey Stewart said that years before the plane crash, Payne bought her mother a beautiful wristwatch. Both of her parents were staying with the Stewarts on the morning of the accident and were visiting Epcot Center when the awful news arrived. “That morning at 9:30, her watch stopped,” she said. “It was 9:30 when they would have perished.” Everything stopped that morning for so many people, but it’s amazing how time eases heartbreak so that it isn’t the chief thing that filters through. Stewart’s victory celebration at Pinehurst – and that snippet of the wild character running into the street at Bay Hill – just makes me smile.
WARM HUGS Stewart posing for a 1987 cover story, and with his family (Chelsea, Aaron, and wife, Tracey).
GOLF DIGEST SOUTH AFRICA 89
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2024
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