Payne at Pinehurst: A Legacy in Artifacts
By Lee Pace
The final day of the 1999 U.S. Open at Pinehurst No. 2 dawned unseasonably cool for the third week in June.
The temperature reached only 64 degrees. It was misty with a light rain here and there.
“I thought that atmosphere was almost ethereal — with the mist and the electricity of the day,” says Trey Holland, the 1999 USGA president. “It’s occurred to me it was like reading Golf in the Kingdom, trying to envision the setting of the book.”
Payne Stewart held a one-shot lead over Phil Mickelson entering Sunday’s round. Stewart was wearing navy plus-fours and a red-and-navy striped shirt for the final round and also donned a navy rain jacket.
“He was a lot more serious that day,” she says. “He’d been laughing and cutting up all week. When he came in and asked for scissors, I said, ‘You want a haircut?’”
“Very funny,” Stewart replied.
He then proceeded to cut off the sleeves of his rain jacket and went out in the mist and shot a final-round 70 to edge Mickelson by one shot, nailing a 20-foot putt on the final shot of the competition to seal the deal.
The exhibit pays homage to his early life and career through his becoming a World Golf Hall of Fame member and being a two-time U.S. Open champion. The display was curated by Mike Trostel, the director of the World Golf Hall of Fame, with consultation and extensive loans of artifacts from the Stewart family.
The display includes the outfit and golf glove that Stewart wore and the putter and ball he used on No. 2 in winning in 1999. There is the shirt that he and his U.S. Ryder Cup teammates wore in winning the matches at Brookline that year. There are scorecards from various victories and trophies he collected.
The Prayer Handbook and ‘WWJD’ bracelet given to Payne by his son, Aaron, speaks to Payne’s commitment to his faith later in his career. The pocketknife and its inscription — ‘I am a really good putter‘ — is a reminder of the power of positive thinking for golfers at any level.”The exhibit will be on display until September 13, 2026, at the USGA Experience & World Golf Hall of Fame facility near the golf clubhouses at Pinehurst Resort.
Lee Pace is a freelance golf writer who has written about Sandhills area golf for four decades and is the author of club histories about Pinehurst Resort & Country Club, Mid Pines, Pine Needles and Forest Creek.
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