Afternoon Baseball

ESPN.com - GOLF/USOPEN05 - Maisel: Reminiscing about Payne

It's been 6 years since Payne Stewart won the U.S. Open with a thrilling putt on 18, defeating Phil Mickelson. I remember watching that, and rooting for Stewart the whole time, not knowing he'd be dead before Halloween. Stewart, even as he celebrated his triumphant return to glory, immediately congratulated Mickelson on his triumph of becoming a father, as Mickelson's wife gave birth the next day. Look at that last day -- Tiger and Vijay in contention, and think, although Stewart was 42 already, of the U.S. Open duels that might still be continuing with the triumverate of Tiger, Vijay and Lefty trying to outwit the cagey man in crazy clothes.

But anyways, I knew little about golf as a young kid in the early '90s. But everyone knew Payne Stewart. Maybe because of the clothes, maybe because of the brashness, but when I was 10 or so, I knew Nicklaus, Palmer, Daly, and Stewart. (I had actually learned about teen-aged Tiger Woods from Boys Life magazine, but I digress). Daly and Stewart were/are larger-than-life figures, but at least Stewart was able to figure it all out, and be at the top of his game, both in golf and life, when he met his tragic end.