PEBBLE BEACH – Lee Janzen thought he’d hit the perfect drive on the fourth hole during yesterday’s practice round at Pebble Beach Golf Links. It was a clean hit, down the middle of a lush fairway. Prime position.
But when he approached the ball, Janzen discovered it had landed in a dreaded sand divot. It was then he turned to his playing partner David Duval and grinned. “Payne must have put that ball there,” he said. “He maneuvered it just so it would go in that divot.”
The quip prompted a hearty laugh from Duval and served as one of the many snapshots of emotions that have surrounded these early days of the 100th U.S. Open. Amid the splendid beauty of a sun-splashed day on one of the nation’s most scenic and storied courses, a mixture of sadness and celebration was evident as golfers who are trained to forget everything once inside the ropes couldn’t help but reminisce.
It has been eight months since something went terribly wrong with a Learjet carrying Payne Stewart and five other associates. After veering off its flight path, the plane crashed into a South Dakota farm field and everyone aboard was dead. That was on Oct. 25, but the memory was fresh again yesterday at Pebble Beach.
Stewart would have been the defending champion this week, having earned the right by draining an 18-foot putt on the 72nd hole at Pinehurst last year to beat Phil Mickelson by one stroke and win the 99th U.S. Open, his third major championship. Can you imagine how happy and proud he would be playing this tournament on a golf course where he won the Pebble Beach Pro-Am 16 months ago?
“It was one of the first things that hit me right after his death, that he wouldn’t be at Pebble Beach, the place he loved more than any other place to play,” Janzen said.
Instead of a defending champion, we have tributes to a defending champion: books, television specials, newspaper articles and personal reflections. Stewart’s wife of 18 years, Tracey, served as the special guest last night at the dinner for former U.S. Open champions. The players will stage their own tribute at 7 a.m. today near the 18th green, where a few of them will hit golf balls into the ocean as part of a 21-gun salute. Paul Azinger called it, “golf’s last opportunity to say goodbye.”
Those are the official observances of Stewart’s passing. The informal and private acknowledgments that have taken place during the practice rounds and in the players’ locker room also have given this tournament a sentimental feel.
“It’s definitely a sad week because we’re not only missing a friend, we’re missing the defending U.S. Open champion,” Davis Love III said. “That brings it all to the forefront.”
This would have been a special tournament even if Stewart was not tragically killed. It’s the centennial event of the country’s most prestigious tournament, the first U.S. Open of the new century, at Pebble Beach. The specter of Stewart only adds to the intrigue, prompting Greg Norman to call this potentially, “the best Open championship ever.”
What this tournament also offers is a chance for closure to one of the most tragic events in golf history. The accident may have been eight months ago, but the feelings are still raw.
“Many of us are still in disbelief,” Azinger said. “All of us are still hurt.”
Maybe some closure comes on Sunday when a new champion is crowned, closure that will be welcomed by family, friends and colleagues who have grown exhausted in recent weeks, repeatedly recounting Stewart’s life, career and sudden death. Some hearts remain heavier than others.
Stewart’s caddie of 12 years, Mike Hicks, has been reluctant to answer any more queries on Stewart, and some players on the tour want to avoid being pulled into the sea of sorrow.
“If you don’t want to think about it, obviously you’re not going to talk about it,” Tiger Woods said yesterday. “I think that’s exactly what’s happening out here. A lot of players aren’t talking about it. We don’t feel like we need to be thinking about that.”
Yet there are those like Janzen, who are using this as a soothing tonic to remind him of a cherished friend and competitor. “We talk about it in Bible studies just about weekly,” Janzen said. “It think it’s uncomfortable for some people to talk about someone who’s dead because you don’t know what to say. But I think it’s more helpful to talk about it.”
Janzen, like Stewart, is a two-time U.S. Open, winning at Baltusrol in 1993 and at Olympic in 1998. Stewart finished second both years. No one was happier to see that 18-footer drop at Pinehurst last year than Janzen. “He was owed and he deserved it,” Janzen said.
Mickelson watched the putt roll in, denying him a shot at his first major championship. There was disappointment in the defeat until Stewart grabbed Mickelson, then an expectant father, and told him being a dad would be better than winning any tournament. He was right.