7. Stewart's Last Hurrah (1999)
Payne Stewart had shaken off his “clown” reputation with his win in the USPGA in 1989 and his US Open win in 1991, where he beat Scott Simpson in a playoff. He was always hugely popular with golf fans for his unique outfits, featuring a flat cap and pants which were a cross between plus fours and knickerbockers, all in remarkably loud colours. By 1999, Stewart hadn’t won on tour for four years and was seen as a good player whose moment had perhaps come and gone. In 1998, he had led the US Open by four shots going into the final round, only to shoot a 74 as Lee Janzen snatched victory by a shot with a 68. At the US Open at Pinehurst No 2, he was determined not to let another title slip away. Despite the usual Tiger charge and a great effort by Vijay Singh, it all came down to a head-to-head battle against a young Phil Mickelson. In the event, Phil was in the middle of the sixteenth fairway with a one-shot lead before missing the green and failing to get up and down for his only bogey of the day. When Stewart stuffed his approach on seventeenth to four feet for a birdie, Mickelson realized his grip on the trophy was all but gone. On the eighteenth, Stewart sank a fifteen foot par putt for a one-shot win which he celebrated in some style. Unbelievably, within a couple of months Stewart was gone, killed in a plane accident en route to the Tour Championship. The private jet had suffered a massive loss of cabin pressure, killing everyone on board and the world watched as the ghost plane flew until the fuel ran out and it crashed in South Dakota.
