Wednesday, October 27, 1999
Tour players beginning to deal with tragic
loss
By DOUG FERGUSON
Associated Press
HOUSTON — The conditions at Champions Golf Club could
not have been more glorious Tuesday. The sun was shining, only
a trace of breeze. The silence was broken only by the rap of a
putter on the practice green.
“A dreary day,” said John Huston, summing up a somber
mood as the 29 players in the Tour Championship tried to cope
with the shocking death of U.S. Open champion Payne Stewart.
Flags were at half-staff. Smiles were hard to find.
Tiger Woods felt a void when he watched the developments unfold
on television Monday, the Learjet with Stewart and five others
aboard flying uncontrolled across the heartland, only a matter
of time before it plowed into the earth.
It hit Woods even harder when he flew to Houston that night
and picked up the pro-am pairing. His tee time was 9 a.m. The
slot below, which once held Stewart’s name, was blank.
“That was a rude awakening,” Woods said. “You
think that hopefully it was a bad dream, a nightmare ... but unfortunately,
it came true. It’s hard to be believe he’s not going
to be here.”
A memorial service for Stewart will be at 11 a.m. Friday at
the First Baptist Church of Orlando (Fla.). The PGA Tour altered
the schedule to give players a chance to attend.
The Tour Championship will begin with 27 holes on Thursday,
have another 27 holes on Saturday and conclude Sunday with an
18-hole round.
“The tournament should go on,” Woods said. “But
obviously, it’s not going to be an easy week. It’s going
to be tough.”
It clearly wasn’t an easy day.
While the pro-am was canceled, 22 players kept their date with
four amateur partners. It was a form of therapy for some, although
they played with no emotion and even less focus. Stewart, his
quick wit, loose swing and colorful knickers, was never far from
their minds.
“I’m walking down the fairway and occasionally I
get a few flashes in my head of Payne and some of the memories
I have,” Woods said. “Everyone is going through that.
It is just a matter of dealing with it and coming to the peace
and understand that he is in a better place right now.”
The Tour Championship is one of the best events of the year,
a festive atmosphere for the top 30 players on the money list.
While Champions is only a mile from one of the busiest thoroughfares
in Houston, the silence was spooky.
“Nobody was really asking for autographs or clamoring
for pictures,” Woods said. “Nobody was talking. It was
very eerie. This golf tournament ... it doesn’t have the
same emphasis as it once did, and rightfully so.”
Among those who hadn’t arrived was Davis Love III, whose
father was killed in a plane crash in 1988.
“Our entire family knows the grief the Stewart family
is enduring,” he said in a statement.
Phil Mickelson, who finished one stroke behind Stewart in the
U.S. Open, showed up before dawn for morning television shows
and returned to the course in the afternoon.
“For this to happen at the height of his career, and really
the height of his life, is difficult to accept,” Mickelson
said. “I haven’t really thought about the tournament
this week or playing. It’s just a real somber mood here.
“As far as golf is concerned, it really takes a seat on
the back burner.”
Stewart will not be replaced in the field.
Woods, who won for the sixth time this year at Disney World
on Sunday, has a chance to surpass $6 million if he wins the next
two tournaments, although that was not even a consideration on
Tuesday.
He will be paired with David Duval, No. 2 on the money list,
for the first time this year.
Big deal.
“I think it will be difficult to be focused on what you’re
doing,” Duval said. “I don’t know how spectacular
the golf will be.”
Duval was among a dozen or so players at Champions on Monday
for a practice round. Mike Hicks, Stewart’s caddie, was stepping
off the yardage on the course when he was summoned to the phone.
“I don’t think today was any easier, but yesterday
was the worst part about it all,” Duval said. “I think
today was just trying to get a grasp of it being real.”
The flags were a constant reminder how real it was. If that
wasn’t enough, PGA Tour officials were making black ribbons
for players and caddies to wear as a tribute to Stewart.
“It’s hard to think about playing a tournament,”
Huston said. “It doesn’t seem worth it.”
Across the Atlantic Ocean, the American flag flew at half-staff
at St. Andrews. At the European tour stop in Germany, players
were in the same frame of mind — shocked by the tragedy,
trying to find words to describe a competitor and friend.
Woods took questions for about 20 minutes, the toughest part
of his day.
“To have him gone ... it is really difficult to refer
to him right now in the past tense,” he said. “That’s
the hardest thing for me right now, when I talk about it.”
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